IMMORTAL  LIFE 

HOW  IT  WILL  BE  ACHIEVED 


EDITION  OF   1920 


C.     A.     STEPHENS,     M.  D 


IMMORTAL   LIFE 


HOW  IT  WILL  BE  ACHIEVED 


BY 

CHARLES  ASBURY  STEPHENS  (M.D.,  A.M.) 


THE    LABORATORY 

NORWAY  LAKE,   MAINE 
1920 


Copyright,  79^*0, 
By  C  a.  Stephens 


THE   COLONIAL   PRESS 
C    H.    SIMONDS    CO.,    BOSTON,    U.    S.    A. 


DEDICATION 

This  book  is  addressed  to  all  earnest  students  of 
Life,  and  gratefully  inscribed  to  the  sweet  singer 
who,  in  the  midst  of  her  triumphs  in  Opera,  re- 
nounced a  brilliant  public  career  to  aid  in  making 
these  researches.  Except  for  that  generous  aid  this 
exposition  of  what  we  hold  to  be  a  scientific  renais- 
sance of  Christianity,  would  hardly  have  appeared. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction «...         i 


PART  I 


45 


45 
47 
49 
56 
76 


Immortal  Life 

Immortal  Life  the  Fondest  Aspiration  of  Mankind 
Immortal  Life  Already  Initiated  in  Man     . 
Brain  a  Steadily  Progressive  Organ  of  the  Body 
Natural  Salvation  in  Unicellular  Life 

The  Cell-of-Life 

Forms,  Appendages  and  Functions  of  Cells  in  Multicellular  Organisms  87 
The  Neuro-Electronic  Circulation      .         .         .         .         .         .         .100 

Human  Personality  ;  Its  Composite  and  Dissoluble  Nature  107 

Human  Personality  in  Relation  to  the  Ether  of  Space; 

A  Probable  Solution  of  Spiritism 123 

What  Is  the  Ether? I25 

Cell  Metabolism  in  Relation  to  the  Ether  .         .         .         .         .         .127 

The  Probable  Explanation  of  Mirage,  Frost-Flowers  and  Ghosts      .  128 
Psychical  Research;    A  Harsh  Criticism     .         .         .         .         .         .130 

An  Erroneous  Definition     .........  134 

No  Cells,  No  Consciousness       ........  136 

The  Biological  Definition  of  Human  Personality      ....  136 

Exeyi  Monumenttim    ..........  j-jq 

Where  Is  Spirit-Land?       .........  140 

To  What  Extent  Can  a  Past  Personality  Be  Raised  from  the  Dead?  143 
Summary  of   Conclusions   As  Regards  Human   Personality  and  the 

Ether  of  Space     ..........  144 

Conclusions  Which  Have  Come  As  a  Relief       .....  148 

The  Intimate  Causes  of  Old  Age  and  Organic  Death    .        .  150 

The  Metchnikoflf  Theory  of  Old  Age         .         .         .         .         .         .  l^T. 

Old  Age  from  Organic  Disharmony  .          .          .         .         .          .          .  I C4 

Old  Age  from  Invisible  Dirt  Particles jcc 

Dr.  Evans'  Earthy  Salts  Theory  of  Old  Age icy 

Old  Age  from  Blurring  of  the  Brain ic8 

Old  Age  from  Lack  of  Incentive  to  Live I  eg 

The  Vegetable  Theory  of  Old  Age 161 

The  Hypnotic  Theory  of  Old  Age 16-? 

Old  Age  from  Hardened  Arteries 1 64 

The  Discovery  of  Cell  Old  .^ge l6r 

V 


VI 


CONTENTS 


The  Capillaries  in  Old  Tissues 

Sensation  and  Cell  Old  Age       .... 

The  Inference  from  Maupas'  Observations 

Subsequent  Conclusions       ..... 

Old  Age  As  Induced  by  Heredity     . 

Terrestrial  Life  As  Limited  by  Physical  Accidents 

The  Reproduction  Theory  of  Old  Age     . 

Does  Gravitation  Cause  Old  Age?     . 

Old  Age  from  Necrosis  of  the  Cells 

Is  Old  Age  from  the  Chemical  Affinities  of  Matter? 

Old-Aging  from  Insufficient  Sleep 

Other  Opinions  of  Biologists     .... 


PAGE 

170 
173 
175 
180 
184 
186 
187 
192 

193 
193 
194 
196 


PART  II 

Immortal  Life  ;   How  It  Will  Be  Achieved 

The  Breeders'  Method  of  Longevity 

Two  Discoveries  Which  We  Now  Hope  For 

Present  Imperfections  of  the  Nutritive  Processes 

Desuete  Organs  Not  Necessarily  Dangerous 

Experiments  With  Condensed  Foods 

The  Office  and  Functions  of  the  Endocrine  Glands 

Suggested  Methods  of  Procedure 

Dr.  Serge  Voronoff's  Experiments     . 

Nervous  Energy;    Its  Composite  Nature     . 

Resuscitation  of  Desuete  Cells  .... 

The  Psychic  Factor  for  Deathless  Life 

The  Inherent  Morality  of  Longer  Life 

What  Has  Been  Done  Thus  Far 

Co-operation,  the  Keynote  of  Vital  Evolution     . 

The  Need  of  Co-operative  Research 

Care  of  the  Organism  During  Sleep 

The  Study  of  Multicellular  Reproduction 

Study  of  the  Peripheral  Nervous  System  . 

Deathless  Life  a  Necessity  of  Future  Evolution 

The  Obstacles  to  Co-operation  Not  Overlooked 

Gens  ScienticB  et  Vitas 


199 

199 
202 
204 
207 
208 
211 
213 
216 
218 
219 
219 
221 
225 
228 

233 
236 

237 

238 
240 
242 
242 


IMMORTAL    LIFE 

HOW  IT  WILL  BE  ACHIEVED 
INTRODUCTION 

The  line  of  research  indicated  by  the  title  of  this  work,  was  first 
undertaken  in  1876,  and  the  w^ork,  itself,  as  it  at  present  stands, 
has  been  antedated  by  several  minor  volumes  treating  of  the  same 
subject,  marking  the  progress  of  investigation,  namely:  — 


Living  Matter,  published  in  il 

Pluricellular  Man,  1893. 

Long  Life,  1896. 

Natural  Salvation  (three  editions),  1903. 

Salvation  by  Science,  19 13. 

Forty  years  ago  less  clear  ideas  prevailed  as  to  the  nature  and 
condition  of  matter  than  to-day.  The  electron  had  not  then  been 
discovered.  Atoms  and  molecules  were  the  ultima  Thide  of  the 
physicist  and  chemist.  The  concept  of  a  potency  for  sentience, 
impregnating  matter  universally,  was,  as  yet,  but  vaguely  enter- 
tained. Scientific  opinion  was  moving  in  this  direction,  how'ever, 
as  the  following  citation  from  Living  Matter  will  show\ 

"  In  the  past,  and  largely  as  a  necessity  of  theological  tenets, 
matter  has  been  depicted  as  the  lifeless  material  of  a  manufactured 
universe.  The  physical  science  of  to-day  postulates  matter,  not  as 
lifeless,  but  as  primarily  sentient;  not  the  inert  substance  of  a 
created  world,  but  the  living  substance  of  a  self-acting  universe; 
that  matter  is  itself  creative  of  phenomena  by  virtue  of  that  sen- 
tient attribute  with  which  the  ultimate  atom  is  endowed  and  pos- 
sessed. It  portrays  a  universe,  acting  without  interference.  Im- 
pelled by  a  sentient  attribute,  matter  moves  and  returns  to  itself 

I 


2  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

through  the  cycle  of  universal  phenomena.  Matter  possesses  the 
elements  of  conscious  feeling.  This  it  is  which  gives  the  sem- 
blance of  subjective  design  in  nature;  the  universe  moving  forv.ard 
from  the  urge  of  a  lowly  self-consciousness.  .   .  . 

"  That  wondrous  substance  which  —  for  lack  of  a  better  name 
—  we  still  call  matter,  possesses  the  property  of  sentience  from 
which  all  life  is  an  organized  development;  that  property  which 
struggles  upward  from  elemental  feeling  to  intelligence;  that 
primeval  endowment  out  of  which  all  that  is  noble,  true  and 
worthy  in  man,  is  born,  and  to  the  deep  instinct  of  which  all  things 
base,  false  and  vicious  are  but  the  dross  that  clogs  its  expression. 
Under  the  present  conception  there  is  no  such  thing  as  hfeless 
matter,  and  hence  no  such  doctrine  as  '  materialism.' 

"  In  organized  matter,  we  contemplate,  not  the  miracle  of  an  in- 
sentient force  transforming  itself  into  sentience  and  inteUigence, 
but  simply  the  raising-up  of  this  primary  sentience  of  matter  to 
more  full  expression.   .  .  . 

"  Here,  on  this  eternal  constant,  the  intimate  life  of  matter,  it- 
self, founds  the  hope  of  a  possible  immortality  for  man.  No 
vicissitude  of  earth  has  yet  been  observed  to  deteriorate  its  quality. 
Everlasting  as  the  stars,  it  shines  from  the  heart  of  each  ultimate 
particle  of  matter,  and  illumines  the  wide  deserts  of  space  with  the 
glow  of  light,  of  heat  and  of  life.   .  .  . 

"  Matter  is  everywhere  potentially  sentient ;  yet  on  the  earth's 
surface,  matter  can  move  in  response  to  this  endowment  only  when 
combined  in  a  certain  peculiar  way,  namely,  in  that  complex  asso- 
ciation of  molecules  forming  the  semi-fluid  substance  which  has 
been  designated  as  '  protoplasm  '  in  the  cell-of-life,  and  only  when 
acted  on  by  sublimated  matter,  emanating  from  the  sun.  Such 
is  the  clutch  of  gravity,  and  the  tension  of  the  electric,  d}'Tiamic 
and  other  modes  of  energy,  that  this  '  protoplasm '  is  the  only 
knoun  terrestrial  substance,  loose,  yet  coherent  enough  to  be  able 
to  move  itself  at  the  instigation  of  the  initial  sentience  of  matter. 
It  is  at  once  the  material  and  the  architect  of  organized  life;  in  it 
stirs  the  sentience  which  animates  every  organism  and  constitutes 
man  a  living  being.  But  for  this  mobile  substance,  the  earth 
would  lie  a  dusty  tundra,  with  no  tint  of  vernal  green  on  its  wide 
gray  plains  or  mantling  its  rusty  precipices.  The  continents  would 
stretch  out  bare  and  solitary ;  on  them  the  rain  would  beat,  but  no 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  3 

living  plant  would  grow.  Save  the  lonely  roar  and  wash  of  waves 
on  desert  coasts,  the  clangor  of  storms,  or  the  harsh  rumble  of 
volcanic  fires,  the  great  convexed  terraine  would  be  a  voiceless 
waste.  In  vain  would  spring  suns  caress  it,  or  summer's  passion 
bum,  or  autumn  ask  a  harvest.  Fruitless  old  earth,  never  crowned 
with  life,  would  wheel  onward  through  her  era  and  epochs,  a  sphere 
of  stone  and  water,  dun,  rugged,  and  mute." 

It  would  be  erroneous  to  assume  that  the  concept  of  a  sentient 
property  in  all  matter  is  a  wholly  modern  one.  Anaxagoras, 
Zeno,  Epicurus,  Lucretius,  in  the  classic  era,  divined  it  darkly; 
Gassendi  erratically,  in  1640;  and  Tyndall  clearly,  in  1870.  Indeed, 
those  who  ponder  these  subjects  longest,  most  deeply,  almost  in- 
variably come  to  like  conclusions  touching  matter  and  life.  In 
1891  Ave  find  Thomas  Edison  saying  offhand:  "It  is  my  belief 
that  every  atom  of  matter  is  intelligent,  deriving  energy  from  the 
primordial  germ.  The  intelligence  of  man  is,  I  take  it,  the  sum  of 
the  intelligence  of  the  atoms  of  which  he  is  composed.  Every 
atom  has  an  intelligent  power  of  selection  and  is  always  striving 
to  get  into  harmonious  relation  with  other  atoms.  .  .  .  All  matter 
lives  and  everything  that  lives  possesses  intelligence.  .  .  .  The 
atom  is  conscious  if  man  is  conscious,  is  intelligent  if  man  is  in- 
telligent, exercises  will-power  if  man  does. 

"  We  are  told  by  geologists  that  in  the  earliest  periods  no  form 
of  life  could  exist  on  the  earth.  How  do  they  know  that?  A 
crj^stal  is  devoid  of  this  principle,  they  say,  and  yet  certain  kinds  of 
atoms  invariably  arrange  themselves  in  a  particular  w^ay  to  form  a 
crystal.  They  did  that  in  geological  periods,  antedating  tlie  ap- 
pearance of  any  form  of  life,  and  have  been  doing  it  ever  since,  in 
precisely  the  same  way.  Some  crystals  form  in  branches  like  a 
ferrL  Why  is  there  not  life  in  the  growth  of  a  crystal?  Was  the 
vital  principle  specially  created  at  some  particular  period  of  the 
earth's  history,  or  did  it  exist  and  control  every  atom  of  matter 
when  the  earth  was  molten?  I  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  all 
matter  is  composed  of  intelligent  atoms,  and  that  life  and  mind 
are  merely  synonyms  for  the  aggregation  of  atomic  intelligence." 

The  above  citations  concerning  "  matter  "  and  "  protoplasm  " 
are  adduced  here,  rather  to  indicate  scientific  progress  than  pre- 


4  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

sent  existent  ideas.  The  word  matter  is  still  retained,  but  our 
ideas  of  it  have  changed.  A  vvell-niarked  scientific  progress  lias 
been  made  toward  the  identification  of  matter  with  energy,  or 
rather,  perhaps,  in  the  reduction  of  matter  to  terms  of  energy. 

No  change,  therefore,  in  rationale  or  hypothesis  is  necessitated, 
from  viewing  living  matter  as  energy.  It  is  merely  tliat  former 
theories  of  inert  and  lifeless  atoms  have  been  eliminated. 

As  to  the  intimate  constitution  of  matter,  meaning  its  ultimate 
constitution,  two  hypotheses  find  consideration  in  the  world  of 
science.  The  first  holds  that  the  cosmos,  in  all  its  phases,  has  its 
origin  at  some  far  depth  of  minuteness,  from  solid,  vivific  parti- 
cles, or  corpuscules,  which  give  rise  in  tlieir  movements  to  all 
phenomena  vital  as  well  as  physical. 

The  second  hypothesis  doubts  the  existence  of  such  ultimate 
solid  particles,  and  holds  that  a  primeval,  perhaps  eternal,  energy 
is  the  sole  source  of  all  phenomena,  including  the  sense  of  sub- 
stance, time  and  space;  that  die  electron  is  but  a  dynamic  eddy  of 
the  basic  energ}^  of  the  cosmos. 

If  T)-ndall  were  living  to-day,  he  would  no  doubt  define  matter 
as  a  form,  mode  or  phase  of  energy,  and  treat  of  energy  as  living 
energy,  possessing  fundamentally  the  potency  for  life.  As  early 
as  1888,  it  had  begun  to  be  recognized  that  matter  possessed  a 
sentient  attribute.  None  the  less,  terrestrial  matter,  meaning  that 
at  the  earth's  surface,  would  remain  inert  until  acted  on  by  the 
more  sublimated  matter  which  emanates  from  the  sun. 

The  conception  of  the  cosmos,  and  of  matter  in  relation  to 
energy,  which  now  obtains  assent,  is,  in  effect,  that  the  highly 
rarefied  nebulae  undergo  "  cooling,"  i.  e.  involution,  to  electrons 
and  the  atoms  and  molecules  of  the  so-called  elements;  and  at  the 
same  time  part  with  an  excess  of  the  original,  rarefied  particles  to 
outer  space,  a  radiation,  indeed,  which  causes  the  involution.  The 
epochs  and  eras  of  orbited  matter  ensue:  self-centered  aggrega- 
tions in  which  energy  is  locked  up  concentrically.  Yet  from  the 
suns  there  still  emanate  streams,  or  tides,  of  the  originally  nebulous 
matter,  which  actuate  life  on  the  planetary  surfaces.  The  uni- 
versal energy  is  both  subjective  and  objective.  As  related  to  the 
human  mind,  that  individualized  portion  of  it  within  the  brain  of 
a  living  being  is  subjective,  with  all  the  rest  of  the  universe  ob- 
jective to  it.     The  universal  energy,  then,  has  a  self  side,  and  is 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  5 

capable  of  insulating  a  subjective  self  to  which  the  rest  of  the 
universe  is  objective.  This  is  what  we  see  accomplished  in  the 
cell-of-life. 

It  is  by  no  means  incredible  that  personal  beings  exist  on 
other  globes  in  space,  who  far  exceed  man  in  knowledge  and 
power.  Nor  is  it  impossible  that  they  exert  an  influence  on  life 
here.  Human  prophets  and  seers  have  always  claimed  divine 
"  inspiration  "  and  "  revelations  "  of  truth.  The  evidence  of 
anything  of  this  sort  is,  in  view  of  all  the  facts,  very  untrust- 
worthy. So  far  as  extraneous  intervention,  or  aid,  goes,  we  appear 
to  be  alone  here. 

That  mysterious  impulse  which  we  now  call  energy,  is  at  once 
the  creator  and  destroyer  of  the  universe  as  we  at  present  behold 
it.  Whence  it  has  come  and  to  what  end  it  proceeds,  no  one  can 
say.  What  it  is  in  ultimate  analysis,  none  can  tell.  When  actuat- 
ing machines,  we  name  it  power.  When  pressing,  motionless, 
against  obstructions,  we  call  it  force.  When  imparting  movement 
to  its  eddies,  we  term  it  motion,  of  which  heat,  light  and  the 
rapid  rush  of  electrons  are  observed  modes.  When  it  impels  the 
so-called  elements  to  compound  or  disrupt  those  compounds,  we 
designate  it  as  chemical  affinity.  In  the  protoplasmic  substance, 
found  in  the  contents  of  the  cell-of-life  —  an  unstable  compound 
of  five  or  six  "  elements  "  —  we  see  it  display  automatism  and 
that  sentience  from  which  our  personal  lives  arise. 

There  is,  indeed,  but  one  logical  explanation  of  the  presence  of 
life  on  the  earth.  It  is  inherent  in  the  energy  that  falls  on  the 
earth's  surface  from  the  sun.  Probably,  too,  it  is  locked  up  in  all 
matter,  tightly  englobed  in  the  atoms  of  the  elements,  which  seem 
lifeless  only  because  the  sentient  property  within  them  cannot 
break  free  and  display  itself  as  life.  The  negative  corpuscle  still 
revolves  within  the  atom,  bearing  its  charge  of  electrical  energy, 
and  of  potential  sentience,  which  might  be  released  and  conditioned 
to  exhibit  life.  Tliat,  indeed,  is  what  occurs  in  the  cell-of-life.  In 
the  protoplasmic  substance  of  the  cell,  there  appears  to  be  an 
exchange  and  inter-play  of  freed  electrons,  instigating  that  pyrrhic 
circle,  or  bund,  which  underlies  the  self-consciousness  of  a  cell. 
But  the  great  source  of  freed  electrons  is,  of  course,  the  sun,  with- 
out whose  tides  of  aperient  energ^^  earth  would  be  a  lifeless  waste. 


6  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

The  solution,  therefore,  of  the  whilom  riddle  of  evolution,  lies 
not  in  further  painstaking  observation  of  every  minute  detail  of 
anatomy,  or  histology,  but  in  recognition  of  the  great  truth  that 
the  cause  of  life  is  a  potentially  sentient  property,  inherent  in 
energy  or  matter,  which  feels  its  way  consciously  forward,  and  by 
means  of  experience  and  organization  rises  to  higher  and  higher 
estates  of  intelligence.  All  these  complicated  mechanisms  of  life, 
adapted  to  locomotion,  prehension  of  food,  nutrition  and  reproduc- 
tion, have  come  into  existence  under  stress  of  pain  or  pleasure. 

The  cause  of  evolution  goes  deeper  than  organic  details.  It  is 
a  consciously  directive  factor.  It  is  not  to  be  found  by  pothering 
with  organic  details.  Largely  it  comes  here  from  afar  —  from  the 
sun  —  was  probably  in  the  original  nebula,  and  is  competent  to 
inaugurate  an  evolution  of  life  here  or  elsewhere.  As  to  its  origin, 
it  is  vain  to  speculate. 

The  universe  as  we  behold  it  is  a  revelation  of  energy.  In  vast 
panorama,  it  hangs  athwart  space,  in  the  guise  at  once  of  sub- 
stance and  power.  That  conscious  life  is  one  of  its  potencies,  can 
scarcely  be  doubted.  Segregated  in  the  cell,  it  displays  subjec- 
tivity; a  subjectivity  to  which  everything  outside  the  confines  of 
that  cell  is  objective.  The  energy  which  impels  the  universe,  is 
capable  of  individualization  and  personality.  Given  sufficient  or- 
ganization in  brain  and  body,  it  rises  to  mind  and  intellect. 

That  an  elemental  consciousness  is  the  fundamental  and  final 
mode  of  energy  is  now  increasingly  probable,  also  that  all  other 
observed  modes  of  energy  connect  down  to  it;  and  that  not  only 
the  cell-of-life,  as  seen  in  unicellular  hfe,  but  all  multicellular 
forms  of  life,  animals  and  plants,  are  en  rapport  with  it.  In  short, 
a  great  truth  of  nature  is  beginning  to  dawn,  namely,  that  all 
living  creatures  are  within  the  cordon  of  the  universal  conscious- 
ness; that  the,  hitherto,  mystic  phenomena,  which  have  so  long 
puzzled  the  human  mind,  telepathy,  clairvoyance,  "  spiritual  in- 
tuition," are  due  to  the  relations  of  the  cell-of-life  with  this  sen- 
tient property  of  the  universe.  Here  spiritism  has  its  root  and  will 
have  its  explanation. 

Energy,  indeed,  is  now^  the  one  proper  object  of  scientific  study 
and  experiment.  All  the  great  discoveries,  that  have  made  man 
what  he  is  on  the  earth  to-day,  from  fire  and  steam  to  the  elec- 
tron, have  been  discoveries  in  energ}^     At  present,  the  swift,  motile 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE   ACHIEVED  7 

electron  marks  our  deepest  gropings  in  the  self-englobing  of 
energy.  But  that  the  electron  is  the  ultimate  particle  and  building- 
block  of  the  universe,  is  highly  improbable,  in  view  of  what  is  al- 
ready credible  concerning  the  ether  of  space,  its  waves  and  the 
various  rays  which  emanate  from  certain  of  the  so-called  "  ele- 
ments." But  beneath  it  all,  before  it  all,  we  conceive  of  a  property 
primevally  sentient,  primarily  self-conscious,  potentially  intelli- 
gent, actuating  it  all ;  in  a  word,  the  inherent  property  from  which 
personal  life  upwells,  and,  through  long  ages  of  organism,  is 
raised  toward  omniscience  and  omnipotence.  Omniscience  and 
omnipotence !  Did  the  present  orbited  order  of  the  universe  origi- 
nate from  these  grand  heights  of  intelligence,  to  which  human  be- 
ings now  aspire? 

These  are  questions  which  transcend  present  knowledge  to  an- 
swer. But  somewhere  in  the  vast  depths  of  the  cosmic  energy, 
the  potency  to  feel  and  live  and  groiv  zmser  has  its  root. 

Living  Matter  (1888)  concluded  as  follows:  — 

'*  There  is  a  time  in  the  young  life  of  every  fairly  fortunate  and 
normally  healthy  human  being  when  existence  is  a  joy,  a  well- 
nigh  unalloyed  sense  of  happiness;  when  earth  seems  wondrously 
fair  and  all  nature  a  source  of  gladness  to  the  eyes  and  laughter 
to  the  heart.  That  time,  that  season  of  joy,  is  when  the  living 
matter  within  our  bodies  is  just  reaching  the  adult  condition,  ex- 
panding and  as  yet  unoppressed  by  the  after-load  of  life's  accidents 
and  scars,  the  clearly  apparent  result  of  biogenetic  health,  and  a? 
yet  undiminished  fulness  of  the  living  element  in  all  the  tissues. 

"  Such  an  estate  of  life  is  attainable,  then,  an  estate  when  life  is 
indeed  a  joy  and  worth  living,  at  least  once  in  our  lives,  and  hence 
is  one  of  the  possibilities  of  living  matter  on  the  earth.  That  we 
decline  from  that  condition  of  health  and  joy  is,  as  I  have  at- 
tempted to  show,  the  result  of  ( i )  minute  mechanical  and  chemical 
injuries  within  the  tissues;  (2)  injuries  from  a  continuous  series 
of  physical  accidents  which  befall  the  organism,  internally,  from 
imperfect  food  and  faulty  assimilation;  and  (3)  the  mental,  or 
vital  recoil  and  reaction  from  all  these  injuries,  exhibited  in  dis- 
couragement and  world-weariness. 

"  These  injuries  may  at  times  suddenly  effect  the  death  and  dis- 
solution of  the  organism,  or,  working  slowly  and  in  conjunction. 


8  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

may  occasion  the  gradual  decline  of  the  living  matter  in  the  tis- 
sues, and  in  time  induce  the  condition  known  as  '  old  age.' 

"  It  cannot  fail  to  be  apparent,  however,  that  each  and  every 
one  of  these  causes  of  death  and  old-aging  is  of  the  nature  of  an 
ordinary  physical  cause  fairly  zuitliin  human  power  to  avoid  or 
remedy,  and  many  of  which,  in  fact,  we  are  every  day  avoiding  and 
rented \ing.  It  is  the  sum  total  of  these  causes  which  has  hereto- 
fore rendered  death  a  seemingly  inevitable  sequence  to  life.  Yet 
not  one  of  them  but  can  singly  be  warded  off  by  human  science 
and  foresight;  and  if  one,  why  not  all?  It  is  a  question  of  ways, 
means  and  skill  with  us,  not  that  we  die  from  any  immutable  law 
of  nature  as  heretofore  held  and  taught." 

In  Pluricellular  Man,  it  was  shown  that  so  far  from  being  an 
infrangible  integer,  the  human  intellect,  or  soul,  is  a  confluent 
blend  of  a  vast  number  of  separate  cell  lives,  each  a  center  of  self- 
consciousness  ;  a  confluence  which  may  be  diminished,  quantita- 
tively, and  weakened  in  each  separate  cell  until,  as  in  extreme 
"  old  age,"  little  of  self-consciousness  remains. 

It  was  pointed  out  (1893)  that  the  cell-of-life  is  the  sole  seat 
and  source  of  feeling,  consciousness  and  vital  phenomena;  not  only 
in  animal  organisms,  but  for  all  forms  of  life  on  the  earth's  sur- 
face, it  is  in  the  cell  alone,  and  only  through  and  by  means  of  the 
cell  organism,  that  the  potentially  sentient  property  in  energy,  is 
raised  up  into  self-conscious  life  and  intelligence.  No  cell,  no 
consciousness. 

Since  the  days  of  Schleiden  and  Schwann,  the  "  cell  doctrine," 
as  it  is  often  called,  has  been  alternately  attacked  and  defended. 
For  a  time  all  organisms  were  regarded  as  cell  communities,  after 
the  analogy  of  the  citizen  and  the  nation ;  the  intelligence  of  the 
cell  was  much  exaggerated.  The  intellect  of  a  man  was  deemed 
to  be  an  aggregate  of  the  cell  intellects  resident  in  the  brain. 

The  opposed  contention,  typified  by  biologists,  like  Richat,  held 
that  the  animal  organism  manufactures  and  collocates  its  compo- 
nent cells,  not  the  cells  the  organism.  As  late  as  1916,  we  find  a 
physiologist  confidently  discounting  the  importance  of  the  cell 
in  the  human  organism,  his  idea  being,  apparently,  that  cells  are 
incident  merely  to  animal  life,  and  might  even  be  dispensed  with 
altogether,  without  greatly  affecting  that  life! 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE   ACHIEVED  9 

That  the  general  organism  produces  new  cells,  except  by  pro- 
liferation of  existent  cells,  or  extrusion  of  cell  germs,  from  cells 
already  in  situ,  is  an  assertion  at  which  any  competent  histologist 
must  smile.  New  cells  come  into  existence  only  from  existent  tis- 
sue cells,  the  germs  of  which  were  transmitted  in  the  embryo  from 
parent  organisms. 

This  fact  alone,  when  properly  comprehended,  establishes  the 
paramount  importance  of  the  cell  to  the  organism.  No  embryonic 
cell,  no  organism;  no  means  of  replacement  of  the  daily  wear  and 
tear  of  hfe;  no  means  of  transmitting  offspring.  The  nucleus  of 
the  embryonic  cell  contains  what,  of  late,  is  termed  the  heredity- 
germ  of  the  entire  organism.  It  is  to  the  future  organisms  what 
the  package  of  seeds  is  to  the  future  garden. 

It  is  true  that  the  life  of  the  organism,  as  a  whole,  constantly 
coerces  the  cell  to  act  and  to  live  its  life  for  the  good  of  the  entire 
personality.  It  is  true  that  certain  groups  of  cells  are  specialized 
to  various  uses  of  the  organism;  muscular  contraction  to  ensure 
locomotion,  respiration  and  peristalsis ;  secretion,  to  produce  chemi- 
cal activity  for  the  digestion  of  food ;  excretion,  to  eliminate  waste 
products;  deposits  of  earthy  salts,  to  resist  gravitation;  and  that, 
in  many  cases,  these  differentiated  cells  seem  to  be  little  more  than 
chemical  agents,  under  complete  control  of  the  totality  of  cell  life 
which  actuates  the  organism.  None  the  less,  these  lowliest  cells 
sometimes  display  individuality  by  breaking  loose  from  that  organ- 
ized control,  and  running  riot,  causing  the  very  worst  of  human 
diseases.  The  fact  appears  to  be  that  in  whatever  tissue  it  is 
found,  the  cell  never  wholly  loses  its  selfhood,  and  its  ability  to 
initiate  independent  action. 

It  is  true  that  measured  by  the  standard  of  intelligence  displayed 
by  man,  the  intelligence  of  one  of  the  component  cells  of  his  or- 
ganism is  lowly  and  on  a  far  inferior  plane.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
consciousness  and  intelligence. 

Moreover,  it  is  in  the  cell,  and  the  cell  only,  that  the  property. 
or  attribute,  of  energ}'  which  gives  rise  to  life,  finds  means  and 
opportunity  to  display  those  phenomena  which  we  term  vital,  to 
wit  —  spontaneous  movement ;  movement  in  response  to  feeling, 
sometimes  termed  irritability,  though  this  latter  designation  fail? 
to  depict  its  significance.  The  cell,  therefore,  is,  in  reality,  the 
only   living   thing   on   the   earth's    surface.      Organisms,    whether 


lO  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

plants  or  animals,  live  and  are  conscious  only  by  virtue  of  the 
metabolism  of  their  component  cells. 

The  cell  contents  has  long  been  the  subject  of  curious  observa- 
tion and  study.  At  first,  and  by  biologists  of  Huxley's  day,  the 
cell  contents  was  regarded  as  homogeneous,  semi-fluid,  of  uniform 
consistency,  composed  of  the  six  elements,  oxygen,  hydrogen,  ni- 
trogen, carbon,  sulphur  and  phosphorus  in  a  state  of  flux,  which 
long  bore  the  name  of  "  protoplasm."  Protoplasm,  indeed,  has 
figured  large  in  the  annals  of  biolog}-.  It  was  long  believed  to  be 
that  magic  substance,  that  viscid,  odorless,  colorless,  transparent 
chemical  compound  in  which  life  first  stirs. 

It  is  hardly  necessar)'  to  state  here  that  cells  are  no  longer  sup- 
posed to  be  filled  with,  or  composed  of,  minute  drops  of  homo- 
geneous, semi-fluid  "  protoplasm."  On  the  contrary,  the  cell  con- 
tents is  now  known  to  be  very  intricately,  complexly,  organized; 
and  that,  so  far  as  known  at  present,  life  —  meaning  the  conscious 
life  of  cells  and  organisms  derived  from  cells  —  never  otherwise 
manifests  itself,  except  through  this  complex  organization  within 
<-he  cell. 

Apparently,  too,  this  organization  extends  to  a  vast  depth  down- 
ward into  the  unfathomed  minuteness  of  particulate  substance. 
We  are  able  at  present  to  trace  it  no  farther  than  organizations  of 
electrons.  That  it  extends  far  deeper,  that  the  electron  is,  itself, 
an  organization  of  bodies  more  minute,  is  wholly  probable. 

Shall  we  then,  in  our  quest  for  the  control  of  life,  think  little  of 
the  cell  and  regard  its  existence  in  the  human  organism  as  inciden- 
tal and  of  minor  importance?  Scarcely.  For  on  the  surface  of 
this  earth  the  cell  represents  the  mode  and  the  vehicle  by  means  of 
which  the  "potency  of  all  life,"  the  mere  potency,  has  worked  its 
way  upward  to  self-conscious  expression.  No  cells,  indeed,  no 
consciousness.  If  we  were  inclined  to  theorize,  the  potentially 
sentient  attribute  of  energy  might  be  regarded  as  energ}-  in  its 
initial  and  most  esoteric  mode  or  form,  from  which  it  would  fol- 
low that  the  universe,  as  we  know  it,  proceeds  from  a  cause  fun- 
damentally sentient.  This  view  need,  by  no  means,  lead  us  into 
pantheistic  conceptions  of  nature,  or  beliefs  in  regnant  anthropo- 
morphic deities,  since  nature  shows  no  sign  of  being  controlled 
otherwise  than  by  an  impulse  within  itself.  An  omniscient  Ruler, 
actively  governing  and  directing  nature  from  some  point  of  \'an- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  II 

tage  outside  it,  is,  in  view  of  the  awful  panorama  of  cruelty  and 
injustice  the  world  presents,  the  most  immoral  dogma  ever  im- 
posed on  the  human  mind. 

Hence  we  must  by  no  means  lose  sight  of  the  cell,  but  rather 
keep  our  attention  focused  on  it.  For  it  is  the  cell  which  gives  us 
the  sense  of  feeling,  the  consciousness  of  self.  It  is  the  cell  which 
proliferates  and  makes  growth  possible.  It  is  through  and  by 
means  of  the  cell  that  the  organism  repairs  its  injuries  and  main- 
tains itself.  It  is  the  cell,  too,  which,  in  its  nucleus,  contains  the 
germ  of  the  race  and  makes  its  successive  generations  possible. 


In  Long  Life  (1896),  the  causes  of  old  age  —  the  progressive 
old-aging  of  the  human  organism  —  were  enumerated  and  ex- 
amined from  the  standpoint  of  histology,  establishing  the  fact  that 
the  causes  of  organic  death  are  essentially  mechanical  and  chemi- 
cal causes,  to  which  may  be  added  retroactive  effects  from  fixed 
beliefs.  Hence,  that  no  fundamental  law  of  nature  underlies  the 
death  of  our  bodies,  but  that  we  cease  to  live  from  common  causes, 
each  and  all  of  which  can  be  alleviated  and  removed  by  efforts 
within  the  power  of  man  to  "make. 


In  Natural  Salvation  (1903),  and  the  three  editions  which  fol- 
lowed, it  was  pointed  out  that  apparently  life  on  the  earth  existed, 
first,  and  for  many  ages,  in  the  unicellular  form,  namely,  as  unicells, 
creatures  consisting  of  a  single  cell-of-life.  Second,  that,  beyond 
reasonable  doubt,  multicellular  organisms,  namely,  plants  and  an- 
imals, were  gradually  developed  from  unicells,  uniting  by  accident, 
perhaps,  at  first,  to  live  together. 

In  brief,  that  living  in  the  multicellular  mode  of  life  has  proved 
a  species  of  natural  salvation  for  the  unicells,  as,  for  example,  the 
cells  of  the  human  brain,  the  life-times  of  which  are  thereby  in- 
creased many  thousand-fold ;  thus  establishing  the  fact  that  under 
nature,  length  of  cell  life  depends  on  improved  nutrition  and  pro- 
tection, —  a  point  of  immense  importance  regarding  the  prolonga- 
tion of  human  life. 


12  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

In  Salvation  by  Science  (1913),  the  conclusions  concerning  hu- 
man Hfe,  set  forth  in  Natural  Salvation,  were  summarized,  the 
causes  of  old-aging  restated,  and  lines  of  research  indicated,  looking 
to  the  control  of  life  in  the  cell. 

Inferential  to  this  it  was  pointed  out  that  happier,  deathless  life 
(idealized  as  Immortal  Life),  entered  upon  in  some  habitat  more 
favorable  than  that  in  which  we  live  at  present  (namely,  Heaven), 
has  been  the  most  cherished  ideal  of  mankind  since  earliest  times ; 
and,  further,  that  the  extraordinary  development  of  the  human 
intellect,  and  the  remarkable  physical  progress  of  the  race,  give 
good  hopes  that  this  ideal  will  be  realized ;  and  that  it  is  toward 
this  sublime  goal  that  the  evolution  of  humanity  proceeds,  namely, 
the  achievement  of  deathless  life  and  the  paradisation  of  the  earth. 

Salvation  by  Science  has  been  harshly  criticised  as  irreligious. 
Certain  critics  appear  to  hold  that  a  biologist  has  no  right  to  raise 
his  eyes  from  the  field  of  his  microscope,  or  give  expression  to  any 
of  those  grand,  future  possibilities  which  his  science  unfolds ;  that 
theology  is  something  wholly  apart,  and  above  scientific  considera- 
tion. 

For  criticism  which  is  to  the  point,  and  therefore  helpful,  this 
author  has  the  greatest  respect,  and  has  always  solicited  it.  In- 
stances of  this,  though  not  wholly  pertinent  to  the  purpose  of  this 
work,  are  yet  very  instructive  as  showing  the  obstacles  which  the 
idea  of  Salvation  by  Science  has  to  encounter  in  the  minds  of 
many  readers. 

"  You  might  as  well  ask  us  to  discard  Christianity^  altogether," 
the  editor  of  a  denominational  journal  writes.  "  Your  idea  would 
supplant  it,  in  toto,  cast  it  to  the  four  winds.  Humanity  without 
Christ!  I  wonder  if  you  realize  what  that  would  mean.  To  me 
it  would  signify  the  loss  of  the  one  regenerative  force  which  now 
preserves  civilization." 

There  is  an  entire  misapprehension  here.  No  such  purpose  to 
supplant  Christianity  exists.  Would  it  avail  —  probably  not  —  to 
point  out  to  this  critic  that  salvation  by  aid  of  applied  science  is  quite 
in  harmony  with  the  scheme  of  immortal  life,  from  morally  reno- 
vated human  life,  set  forth  by  Jesus?  Or  that  the  Christianity  of 
to-day,  as  a  creed,  is  little  enough  what  Jesus  taught,  and  differs 
from  it  so  greatly,  in  fact,  as  to  make  the  word  Christianity  largely 
a  misnomer?     Or,  yet.  that  the  now  most  important  tenet  of  the 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I3 

church,  namely,  that  disembodied  human  lives  are  transported, 
when  the  body  dies,  to  a  supra-mundane  heaven,  or  hell,  was  never 
held  nor  taught  by  Jesus,  had  no  place  in  the  Messianic  scheme, 
nor  yet  was  believed  by  the  early  Christians,  for  a  space  of  at 
least  two  centuries  after  the  crucifixion?  Would  the  critic  above 
cited,  be  greatly  shocked,  astonished,  perhaps,  if  the  present  writer 
claimed  to  be  the  better  Christian  and  could  show  that,  both  in 
spirit  and  in  the  letter,  the  present  work  conforms  more  closely  to 
the  doctrine  which  Jesus  held  and  taught,  than  does  modern  Chris- 
tianity—  adding  that  the  line  of  research  for  which  the  work 
stands,  was  undertaken  to  make  those  doctrines  practical  and 
practicable  ? 

Anotlier  clerical  critic,  hailing  from  the  great  State  of  Missouri, 
has  thought  Salvation  by  Science  worthy  of  a  sermon  in  refuta- 
tion —  and  has  kindly  sent  a  copy  of  it.  After  citing  alchemist 
attempts  to  attain  earthly  immortality  from  elixirs  and  philoso- 
phers' stones,  this  critic  has  concentrated  his  main  argument  on 
tJie  undoubted  fact  that  all  men  who  have  lived  in  the  past  have 
died,  and  from  this  fact  proceeded  to  draw  the  conclusion  that  all 
men  who  ever  live  in  the  future,  will  infallibly  die.  Yet  could 
argument  or  conclusion  have  been  more  untrustworthy?  Equally, 
a  century  ago,  it  would  have  been  said,  with  the  same  aplomb, 
that  no  man  would  ever  be  able  to  converse  in  ordinary  tones,  be- 
tween New  York  and  San  Francisco,  or  send  the  news  along  a 
wire  across  the  Atlantic,  or  transmit  wireless  messages  from 
France  to  America,  or  rise  in  the  air,  like  a  bird,  and  cover  five 
hundred  miles  at  a  single  flight.  The  prolongation  of  life  is  a 
physical  problem,  pure  and  simple,  and  the  growth  of  knowledge  is 
periodically  enabling  human  beings  to  overcome  physical  obstacles 
hitherto  deemed  insurmountable. 

With  considerable  certainty  it  may  be  predicated  of  the  lower, 
unprogressive  animal  orders,  that  death  for  them  is  an  inevitable 
sequence  to  life  —  unless  rescued  by  man.  Horses,  dogs  and  oxen 
will,  probably,  go  on  dying.  Man.  however,  has  learned  to  set 
aside  natural  laws.  To  future  educated  mankind  all  things  are 
possible.  With  prophetic,  though  choleric  vision.  Napoleon  once 
exclaimed.  "  Impossible  is  the  adjective  of  fools."  With  clearer 
vision.  Tennvson  wrote  :  — 


14  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

**  Of  those  who  eye  to  eye  shall  look 
On  knowledge;  under  whose  command 
Is  Earth  and  Earth's,  and  in  their  hand 
Is  nature,  like  an  open  book." 

The  argument  that  men  will  always  die,  because  they  always 
have  died  in  the  past,  controverts  human  progress,  and  needs 
hardly  to  be  considered  further. 

A  chemist  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  takes  Salvation  by  Science  to 
task  for  treating  so  much  of  the  origin  of  life  on  the  earth,  and 
so  little  of  the  chemical  constitution  of  the  blood  which,  in  his 
opinion,  is  the  one  true  avenue  of  approach  to  success  in  renovating 
the  human  organism.  "  What  do  these  questionings  concerning 
the  origin  of  life  have  to  do  with  a  work  devoted  to  prolong- 
ing it  ?  "  he  asks.    In  a  word,  he  would  strictly  specialize  the  effort. 

But  the  very  idea  of  achieving  deathless  life,  looking  to  immor- 
tal life,  involves  the  origin  and  end  of  life,  and,  also,  every  system 
of  religion  which  has  ever  been  formulated  for  human  guidance. 
Immortal  life  embraces  something  more  than  mere  continued  ex- 
istence. It  implies  a  mental  development  which  will  render  con- 
tinued life  enjoyable  and  of  importance  in  the  arena  of  the  uni- 
verse. It  includes  psychology  as  well  as  physiology,  morals  as 
well  as  ethics,  religion  as  well  as  economics,  theology  as  well  as 
medicine,  bio-physics  and  sociology.  All  are  involved,  yes,  inter- 
locked, with  the  idea  of  attaining  greatly  lengthened  life.  Not  a 
single  biological  or  ethical  problem,  affecting  human  life,  can  be 
named,  which  is  not  concerned  with  them  all. 

Moreover,  it  is  a  well-established  fact  that  in  earliest  times,  and 
as  soon  as  man  rose  to  the  erected  posture,  looked  abroad  more 
widely  and  directed  his  thoughts  above  the  mere  gratification  of 
his  animal  wants,  his  origin  has  vaguely  puzzled  him.  and  his 
destiny  in  the  universe  has  given  him  concern.  There  is  reason 
for  this  natural  solicitude.  By  looking  backward,  he  has  gathered 
wisdom  for  his  guidance;  by  looking  ahead  he  has  learned  what 
to  avoid  and  what  to  live  for.  All  experience,  all  forecast,  all 
human  knowledge,  indeed,  is  thus  correlated  and  interdependent. 

An  Englishman,  who  appears  to  be  a  person  of  scholarly  leisure, 
in  the  course  of  a  letter  which  cavils  genially  with  the  idea  that 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE   ACHIEVED  1 5 

deathless  life  can  be  attained  from  the  growth  of  knowledge,  re- 
marks: "But  what  do  we  know  of  immortal  life?  We  cannot 
really  conceive  of  immortality.  Like  its  co-relatives,  eternity  and 
infinity,  it  is  beyond  human  comprehension ;  and  that,  to  me,  is 
evidence  against  the  possibility  of  it,  namely,  that  what  man  can- 
not conceive  of  he  cannot  attain,  or  would  not  be  capable  of,  if 
attained." 

It  is  probably  a  gratuitous  assumption,  that  the  future  son-of- 
man  may  not  comprehend  ideas  which  are  incomprehensible  to  man 
at  present.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  primitive  Aryan  from  whom 
we  are  descended,  could  have  comprehended  wireless  telegraphy. 
Waiving  this  point,  we  might,  without  much  detriment  to  our 
argument,  speak  of  deathless  life  as  being  for  a  period  of  ten  mil- 
lions of  years,  or  the  eon  since  man  first  walked  as  a  vertebrate. 
That  would  measurably  simplify  the  question  of  incomprehensi- 
bility, and,  indeed,  answer  very  well  for  present  purposes !  Per- 
haps, by  that  time,  we  would  be  able  to  comprehend  immortal  life 
better.  Let  me  not  be  understood  as  casting  ridicule  on  my  Eng- 
lish critic's  stricture,  which  in  a  way  is  pertinent,  but,  merely, 
as  repaying  cavil  with  cavil. 

A  reader,  who  signs  himself  as  Assistant  Astronomer  at  one  of 
our  great  observatories,  comments  in  a  superior  vein  —  as  becomes 
an  astronomer  —  on  the  futility  of  all  thought  of  attaining  death- 
less life  in  the  sidereal  universe.  "  The  solar  system  is,  itself, 
ephemeral.  It  is  running  down,  passing  on  to  its  dead  stage.  The 
nebula,  from  which  it  was  evolved,  ran  down.  In  cosmic  time,  the 
widely  separated  dead  orbs  of  this  system  —  the  dry  clods  of  the 
universe  —  may  rush  together,  generating  sufficient  heat,  from 
collision,  to  again  diffuse  them  in  another  nebula.  But  what  per- 
sonalized life  could  survive  such  a  cataclysm?  " 

This  comment  was  gratefully  received,  since  it  embodies  an 
idea  which  has  appealed  strongly  to  many  thoughtful  minds,  dur- 
ing the  last  half-century,  namely,  the  mutable  and  transient  nature 
of  the  cosmos.  Our  globe  of  earth  is  but  a  cosmic  atom,  still 
radiating  its  electrons  and  ic\ns  into  space,  contracting  to  its 
"  dead-orb  lunar  age."  The  immense  solar  globe,  itself,  from  the 
splendid  radiation  of  which  all  terrestrial  life  has  its  source,  will, 
ultimately,  burn  out  and  join  the  "  innumerable  caravan  "  of  dark, 


l6  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

invisible  orbs   that   wheel,   ponderously,   on  their   orbits   in   outer 
space. 

"  As  heat  departs  and  earth  doth  colder  grow, 
And  the  bright  sun's  vast  fires  shall  pale  and  smoulder  low." 

In  the  colossal  flux  of  the  universe,  all  minor  aggregations  of 
matter  wax  and  wane,  perforce.  "  The  stupendous  whole  "  trans- 
mits its  motion,  its  fate,  to  all  lesser  bodies  —  the  human  organ- 
ism, for  example.  The  stress  of  the  universal  inter-flux  compels 
everything  to  begin  and  to  end.  Thus  reasons  the  astronomer 
touching  immortal  life.  A  chimera,  he  says.  The  sick  fancy  of 
a  dying  child. 

But  let  us  put  a  hypothetical  case.  What  if  sentience  —  the  sen- 
tient, conscious  factor  of  energy  —  were  the  source  of  the  cosmos? 
How,  then,  would  it  fare  with  these  present  conclusions  of  the 
astro-physicist  and  astronomer?  If  a  primeval  sentience  were  the 
cause  of  energy  and  motion,  might  it  not  develop  to  be  the  intelli- 
gent ruler  of  the  cosmos?  Might  not  a  far-future  son-of-man, 
arising  from  man-the-erected-animal,  arising  and  growing  in 
wisdom  during  the  billion  of  years  which  some  astronomers  assign 
as  the  earth's  future  life-time,  might  not  such  an  all-knowing  and 
all-powerful  son-of-man  become  the  director  and  ruler  of  solar 
systems,  the  arbiter  of  his  own  fate  and  fortunes  in  tlie  cosmos? 

If,  at  the  center  of  the  cell-of-life,  there  glows  that  which  ante- 
dates energy,  and  is  its  cause,  why  should  that  superior,  regnant 
principal  become  subordinate?  Personalized  in  the  future  son-of- 
man.  why  might  it  not  gain  control  of  the  cosmos? 

Yet,  do  not  these  suggestions  of  limitation  by  the  astronomer 
involve  a  rather  disproportionately  long  look  ahead?  A  billion  of 
centuries  —  another  astronomer's  estimate  of  the  life-time  of  the 
solar  system  —  is  a  great  while.  A  good  many  things  may  happen 
in  that  time!  Omnipotence,  for  example,  might  be  attained  by 
then,  as  well  as  deathless  life. 

An  eminent  scientist,  whose  name  in  this  connection  it  may  be 
more  courteous  to  withhold,  has  written  to  question  the  funda- 
mental propriety,  or  rather  morality,  of  an  effort  to  attain  death- 
less life  on  the  earth,  or  in  the  sidereal  universe.     He  says:  — 

"  I  was  once  a  confident  believer  in  the  plurality  of  worlds, 
moaning  that  other  planetary  bodies  in  outer  space  are  inhabited 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE   ACHIEVED  1 7 

by  beings  of  as  great  intelligence  as  mankind,  or  even  much  sur- 
passing man,  and  that  it  may  be  possible  to  communicate  with 
them. 

"  Later,  wider  views  of  the  subject  have  led  me  to  conclude, 
with  Whewell  and  with  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  that  this  is  very 
improbable,  either  as  in  the  case  of  Mars,  or  far  more  remote  orbs ; 
in  short,  that  the  chances  are  a  thousand  to  one,  that  no  organic 
beings  like  men  exist  at  present  in  our  solar  system,  or  in  others 
concerning  w  hich  we  have  astronomical  knowledge.  In  other  words, 
I  am  now  inclined  to  regard  man  as  a  biologic  accident  in  nature : 
a  creature  the  remarkable  evolution  of  whose  brain  would  not, 
even  on  the  most  favorably  situated  planet  in  space,  be  Hkely  to 
occur  once  in  a  million  times.  When  all  things  are  considered, 
man  is  phenomenal  in  nature,  and  from  many  points  of  view,  an 
anomaly. 

"  We  have  first  to  take  into  account  the  relation  to  each  other 
of  suns  and  planets  in  the  matter  of  heat  and  light;  also  the  life- 
times of  planets  like  the  earth,  since  there  is  but  a  comparatively 
brief  epoch  when  life,  and  especially  multicellular  life,  is  possible. 

"  Consider  further  the  fact  that  of  all  the  million  forms  of  life 
on  the  earth,  even  the  thousands  of  vertebrates,  not  one,  except 
man,  has  thus  wonderfully  developed  brain  and  attained  that  in- 
telligence which  so  contradistinguishes  man  from  his  congeners. 
Consider  still  further  that  the  best  evidence  we  can  gain  at  pres- 
ent as  to  what  started  the  human  cerebrum  on  its  career  of  evolu- 
tion, all  points  to  its  being  accidental,  rather  than  something  in  the 
usual  course  of  nature,  since  all  other  multicells  —  vertebrates  — 
tend  under  natural  conditions  of  environment  and  nutrition,  to  at- 
tain a  restricted  brain  growth  only,  then  pass  into  race  stasis,  and 
subsequently  wane  to  type  extinction.  That  appears  to  be  the 
regular  course  of  nature  on  globes  of  matter  like  the  earth,  an 
order  of  things  which  has  occurred  for  fifty  millions  of  years,  in 
a  thousand  species  of  vertebrates. 

"  But  suddenly,  as  if  fortuitously,  the  brain  cells  of  the  human 
cereljrum  began  to  do  something  extraordinary,  unnatural,  out  of 
the  established  order  of  things,  and  attain  an  abnormal  intelligence. 

"  Hence  I  am  inclined  to  believe  it  is  not  probable  that  any 
species  like  man  exists  elsewhere  in  the  universe  about  us,  or  even 
has  existed,  or  is  in  the  least  likely  to  exist  in  future.     To  put  it 


l8  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

in  a  different  way,  we  are  alone  here,  alone  in  a  ruthless  physical 
universe,  and  not  only  alone,  but  are  an  accident,  a  liisus  naturae, 
a  race  of  beings  naturally  ignorant,  brutal  and  mortal,  but  acci- 
dentally come  in  possession  of  knowledge  which  is  leading  us  on 
whither  we  know  not  —  my  own  fear  being  that  the  more  we  learn 
and  grow  in  intelligence  the  sadder  to  each  of  us,  personally,  will 
be  our  ultimate  fate,  the  more  poignant  our  final  suffering  of 
death. 

"  In  moments  of  this  fear  and  revulsion,  I  often  feel  it  would 
have  been  better  for  us  if  we  had  never  started  on  this  extraordi- 
najy  and  supernatural  evolution  of  brain.  Better  if  man  had  re- 
mained in  his  '  golden  age  '  of  ignorance,  procreation  and  natural 
old-aging,  after  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  of  life,  aging  and  pass- 
ing away  with  no  great  reluctance  at  quitting  life.  Better  if. 
according  to  the  old  Chaldee  tradition,  we  had  never  partaken  of 
the  fruit  of  the  forbidden  tree  of  knowledge.  Better  to  have  re- 
mained in  the  '  garden  '  of  primeval  life,  the  only  life  Earth  is 
fit  to  bear.  Sometimes,  even,  I  have  thought  it  might  be  better  for 
the  children  of  men,  to  bum  all  libraries,  close  all  schools,  abandon 
all  curricula  of  '  education,'  of  culture,  of  knowledge,  and  revert 
to  that  calm  and  happy  golden  age  of  our  species,  when  there  was 
neither  aspiration,  nor  fear  for  our  future," 

Without  comment  or  argument  as  to  the  truth  or  falsity  of  this 
view  (which  has  sometimes  oppressed  the  author)  my  conviction 
is  that  it  is  too  late  to  revert.  I  do  not  believe  it  possible  to  go 
back.  Evolution  of  brain,  attended  by  growth  of  knowledge,  now 
appears  to  me  to  be  inevitable.  Whatever  started  it  in  the  human 
cerebrum,  I  do  not  believe  it  could  be  arrested.  Burning  libraries 
would  not  avail.  Even  the  fixed  dogmas  of  the  great  religions  have 
been  unable  to  bring  the  progressive  mentation  of  the  human  brain 
to  a  standstill.  It  will  go  on.  What  then  ?  That  is  rather  the  ques- 
tion which  we  have  now  to  answer.  What  then  ?  The  contention  of 
this  work  is  the  present  writer's  reply.  Go  on,  make  the  best  of  it, 
and  pull  through  to  something  better,   if  possible. 

I  think,  too,  that  this  scientist  exaggerates  the  calm  and  happi- 
ness of  the  fabled  golden  age  of  mankind.  If  the  truth  were 
known  the  lot  of  humanity  in  early  times  was  a  miserable  one. 
The  glimpses  we  catch  of  human  life  in  the  bone  caves,  scarcely 
attract  us  to  retrogression. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE   ACHIEVED  I9 

Still  another,  who  styles  himself  an  "  Amateur  Astronomer," 
comments  in  like  vein :  — 

"Admit  that  you  can  'achieve'  immortal  life,"  he  writes. 
"  Admit  that  you  can  make  the  human  organism  live  on  in 
spite  of  disease  and  all  the  other  causes  of  death  which  now  beset 
it.  You  would  but  put  off  the  evil  hour.  This  earth,  this  solar 
system,  will  come  to  an  end.  Life  on  the  earth  will  terminate, 
either  from  extreme  cold  or  in  a  burst  of  cosmic  heat.  What 
then  ?    You  would  but  have  put  off  the  inevitable,  final  catastrophe. 

"  I  am  no  believer  in  disembodied  spirits.  Few  astro-physicists 
are.  The  conclusion  I  have  come  to,  after  much  thought  on  the 
subject,  is  that  it  will  be  better  for  the  genus  homo  to  remain 
one  of  the  animal  orders  and,  like  its  congeners,  become  extinct  as 
painlessly  as  possible  when  the  earth  grows  unfit  to  sustain  life. 

"  Think  of  your  race  of  deathless  human  beings  struggling  to 
preserve  immortality  on  a  theater  of  life  which  every  day  grows 
colder  and  colder,  less  and  less  habitable.  To  me  that  is  an  awful 
picture ! 

"  After  all,  is  not  the  parochial  system  of  education  and  human 
control  the  best  for  humanity  —  the  system  that  sterilizes  thought 
and  keeps  man  a  procreative  animal  merely,  dying  off  at  three 
score  years  and  ten,  with  a  comforting  promise  of  heaven  after  he 
has  had  his  animal  gratifications,  and  before  death  becomes  very 
much  of  a  hardship  to  him?  " 

Even  if  there  were  anything  in  so  medieval  a  view,  the  answer 
to  it  would  still  be  that  parochialism  has  come  to  America  too  late 
to  withstand  the  growth  of  knowledge.  Nothing  can  withstand  it. 
Man  in  America  will  as  surely  seek  deathless  life  as  the  sun  shines. 
What  he  will  do  with  it  remains  to  be  seen  by  future  intelligences 
more  divining  than  this  author  or  his  critic. 

"  Materialism,  pure  and  simple,  I  would  catalogue  this  volume 
of  yours.  Materialism,  leavened  by  skepticism,  with  atheism 
added,  incidentally,"  is  the  comment  of  a  popular  preacher  widely 
noted  for  the  sensational  character  of  his  sermons.  I  am  charitable 
enough  to  suppose  that  this  clergyman  read  Sahafion  by  Science 
no  farther  than  the  title  and  table  of  contents.  Accusations  of 
materialism  are  now  quite  obsolete.  The  modern  scientist,  adopt- 
ing the  new  definition  of  matter,  is  rather  a  spiritist  or  a  dynamist. 


20  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Matter,  in  the  old  sense  of  this  time-worn  charge,  no  longer  exists. 
Sentient  energy  has  superseded  it. 

"Skepticism?"  All  persons  of  average  intelligence  are  now 
skeptics  of  much  which  was  once  believed.  The  charge  indicates 
thought  rather  than  demerit. 

"  Atheism  ?  "  Assuredly  not  in  any  proper  sense  of  that  word. 
No  attempt  has  been  made  in  Sah'atiou  by  Science  to  account  for 
the  existence  of  the  cosmos  or  the  existence  of  energy,  primarily. 
The  universe  may  have  been  created.  It  may  have  existed  from 
eternity.  No  one  knows,  least  of  all,  evidently,  those  who  profess 
to  know  so  much.  The  assumption  of  such  knowledge,  under 
whatever  venerable  claims,  is  irreverent  of  the  august  mystery  of 
the  universe.  ]\Iortal  man  has  no  knowledge  of  the  origin  of 
energy,  may  never  acquire  such  knowledge. 

Energy^  appears  to  have  a  life  side,  to  possess  a  sentient  prop- 
erty; or  rather,  perhaps,  what  we  know  as  energy  is  composite, 
made  up  of  factors,  one  of  which  is  the  cause  of  consciousness. 

It  seems  manifest,  too,  that  this  conscious  factor,  this  sentient 
property  of  energy,  is  good,  in  the  human  sense,  and  makes  for 
good,  that  an  urge  toward  what  is  true  and  right  pervades  the 
cosmos,  and  that  evil,  in  the  human  sense,  results  from  the  hetero- 
geneous nature  of  the  earth's  substances,  the  chemical  disharmony 
of  atoms  and  molecules,  collected  from  the  four  quarters  of  space. 

Except  for  the  urge  of  the  sentient  property  of  energy  toward 
the  evolution  of  what  is  true  and  good,  there  appears  to  be  no 
interference  with  life  on  the  earth's  surface,  from  without.  All 
things  go  on  in  accord  with  the  original  impulse  as  conditioned 
here.  Nature  is  not  directly  regardful  of  man,  nor  benevolent  to- 
ward him,  nor  yet  providential.  The  trapped  animal  makes  the 
long  nights  doleful  with  its  anguished  cries  —  in  vain.  The  en- 
tombed miner  prays  and  sobs  to  "  God,"  to  "  Heaven !  "  No  help 
comes  unless  from  his  fellows.  Sorrowfully  we  have  come  to 
learn  that  such  faith  in  "  Providence  "  is  immoral,  and  but  leads 
to  confusion.  We  have  felt  "  the  cosmic  chill  "  to  which  John 
Burroughs  so  fitly  alludes,  ^^'e  have  waked  to  the  vast,  mute  im- 
personality of  the  cosmos.  It  neither  lets  nor  hinders  man.  He 
may  do  what  he  can.  There  is  liberty  only.  If  he  falls  beneath  its 
Titan  stride  he  is  trodden  on  and  crushed.  We  are  ever  face  to 
face  with  this  mute,  blank  impersonality  of  the  cosmos.     It  carries 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  21 

the  "  elements  of  feeling  "  only ;  and  the  great  lesson  so  plainly 
taught  from  it  all  is  that  we  must  push  on,  grow  in  knowledge,  get 
control  of  it  and  save  ourselves. 

A  teacher  of  English  literature  at  a  mid-western  university, 
cites  Bertrand  Russell  as  an  authority  for  her  unbelief  that  human 
beings  are,  or  ever  will  be  improvable  to  the  extent  of  greatly  pro- 
longed life.  "  I  think  that  we  may  as  well  settle  down  to  Bertrand 
Russell's  views,"  she  says.  "  He  seems  to  me  to  have  the  right 
of  it."  Her  letter  has  led  me  to  read  Mr.  Russell's  Mysticism  and 
Logic  with  much  interest.  This  author  may  be  described  as  a  soul 
whom  modern  science  has  disillusioned  without  rendering  hopeful. 
He  has  brought  himself  to  face  the  worst  which  nature  and  an  im- 
personal cosmos  can  inflict  upon  us,  and  bear  it  with  a  lofty  sto- 
icism, tempered  by  a  sad  smile.  If  the  evolution  of  the  race  had 
ceased,  he  would  be  unquestionably  right.  He  depicts  our  real 
status  in  the  universe  with  a  strange  accuracy  which  leaves  one 
wondering  how  he  can  be  so  good  a  scientist  and  yet  have  no  hope 
from  science,  no  faith  in  it  for  the  future.  Beyond  doubt,  science 
disillusions  the  race  in  respect  to  its  childhood  beliefs,  but  while 
doing  so  gives  every  normal  scientist  grand  earnest  of  what  the 
growth  of  knowledge  will  signify  for  future  generations. 

Still  another  teacher  of  literature,  in  the  far  west,  inquires 
whether  the  idea  that  immortal  life  will  come  from  the  growth  of 
knowledge  was  suggested  by  H.  G.  Wells  in  his  book  called  God 
the  Invisible  King.  Scarcely.  The  idea  that  greatly  prolonged 
Hfe  can  be  attained  by  husbandry  of  the  cell-of-life  was  first  set 
forth  in  Living  Matter,  in  1888.  Mr.  \\'ells'  book  was  first  pub- 
hshed  in  19 16.  The  idea,  itself,  has  come  down  from  the  days 
of  Prometheus  and  the  Titans. 

The  present  writer  has  read  Mr.  Wells'  book  with  interest  and, 
I  may  add,  astonishment  that  mortal  man,  even  Mr.  Wells,  knows 
so  much  about  "  God !  "  I  suppose  that  in  America  the  word  king 
is  not  held  in  as  high  veneration  as  in  England.  To  call  the  in- 
finite energy,  which  actuates  the  cosmos,  a  "  king  "  is,  to  us  dem- 
ocratic beings,  some\\hat  anthropomorphic  and  out  of  date.  To 
many  of  us  that  infinite  energy  is  the  one  unknown,  undefined  and 
indefinable  mvsterv  of  the  universe. 


22  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

A  city  merchant,  interested  in  sociology,  writes  briskly  to  ask 
whether  the  recognized  lights  of  science  lend  countenance  to  the 
idea  that  deathless  life  may  be  attained  by  applied  scientific  dis- 
coveries. He  specifies :  "  Has  Professor  H —  of  the  University  of 
C — ,  or  Professor  G —  of  Y — ,  or  Professor  S —  of  H — ,  (and 
eight  other  names  of  high  repute),  men  to  whom  we  look  for  our 
scientific  opinions,  endorsed  this  idea?  I  go  to  the  constituted 
scientific  authorities  for  my  science.  Till  these  authorities  in 
biology  speak,  I  decline  to  take  stock  in  Salvation  by  Science." 

li  there  is  to  be  a  "  closed  shop  "  of  science  in  this  country,  a 
scientific  guild  or  priesthood,  like  that  of  ancient  Egypt,  through 
which  all  scientific  thought  is  to  issue  and  be  authorized,  or  else  be 
proscribed,  the  present  author  can  only  say  that  he  would  deem 
such  a  state  of  things  unfortunate.  But  I  beheve  this  critic  to  be 
in  error.  There  is  no  such  guild  as  he  imagines.  Certain  profes- 
sorial biologists  may,  probably  do,  entertain  a  high  opinion  of 
their  own  dicta;  but  the  educated  public  of  the  country  acquiesces 
in  no  such  claim  to  rights  of  authorization,  or  proscription.  How 
would  Edison's  discoveries  have  entered  the  world,  or  Marconi's, 
or  Morse's,  or  Franklin's,  or  Bell's,  or  Maxim's  or  Nobel's,  if  they 
had  awaited  the  solemn  sanction  of  some  clique  of  professorial 
scientists?  No,  this  is  still  a  free  country.  We  can  all  cast  our 
mites  into  the  treasury. 

What  I  find  unpleasant,  in  this  critic's  attitude,  is  his  air  of  be- 
ing aggrieved.  Is  he  not  quite  free  to  accept  the  contention  of  this 
work,  or  reject  it?  Apparently  he  rejects  it  with  scorn  because 
Professor  So-and-So  has  not  endorsed  it.    Very  good. 

At  the  end  of  a  letter  of  emphatic  dissent,  one  who  signs  himself 
"  a  believer  in  God,"  adds,  ''  My  chief  objection  to  your  irrev- 
erent project  is  that  it  makes  no  account  of  Inspiration  and 
Revelation." 

It  is  not  wholly  impossible  that  beings  on  other  spheres  in  space, 
are  able  to  act,  per  ether,  upon  the  minds  of  certain  individuals  of 
our  race  on  earth,  and  thus  influence  their  conduct  The  facts  of 
wireless  telegraphy  render  such  a  conjecture  not  wholly  improb- 
able. The  medium  through  which  such  influences  might  come, 
undoubtably  exists.  One  could  easily  imagine  an  inhabitant  of 
Mars,  e.  g.,  making  efforts  to  inspire  great  deeds,  or  reveal  im- 


HOW    IT    WILL   BE   ACHIEVED  23 

portant  truths  to  us  on  the  earth,  and  this  for  our  good,  or  con- 
ceivably from  selfish  motives. 

"  But  "  —  one  writes  —  "I  want  a  faith  that  comforts  and 
solaces  me  in  sickness  and  in  death.  What  is  it  to  me  that  future 
generations  may  achieve  immortal  life  under  nature?  I  want  a 
religion  that  will  save  me.  You  will  find  that  nobody  will  want 
this  scientific  faith  of  yours.  What  people  want  and  what  they 
will  adopt  and  pay  for,  is  a  religion  which  they  can  trust  in,  to 
save  them,  personally." 

The  above  is  quoted  from  a  letter,  and  others  give  expression 
to  similar  sentiments. 

It  reveals  an  attitude  of  mind  which  has  supervened  from  cen- 
turies of  indoctrination  by  supernaturalism,  namely,  that  it  is  a 
religion  per  se,  some  religion,  or  any  religion,  which  saves  men, 
and  confers  on  them  the  gift  of  immortal  life,  as  a  reward  for 
believing  in  it. 

It  is  an  obsession  which  has  come  from  that  long-iterated  doc- 
trine, that  men,  or  a  certain  number  of  men,  will  be  "  saved,"  by 
divine  favor  or  grace.  Hence,  naturally,  such  minds  demand  such 
a  religion. 

Scientific  research  does  not  undertake  to  furnish  faiths-to-suit, 
or  religions-to-please.  Science  points  out  the  facts  and  brings 
truth  to  light.  That  is  its  great  of^ce,  its  service  to  the  world.  To 
the  facts  and  truths  of  nature  we  have  to  adapt  ourselves. 

Because  devotees  and  sectaries  have  been  deluded  in  the  past  and 
their  minds  wonted  to  pleasing  promises,  does  by  no  means  con- 
stitute an  obligation  on  scientific  research  to  furnish  further  illu- 
sions, either  for  solace,  or  comfort. 

Nature  is  not  especially  merciful  to  man,  nor  to  any  order  of  her 
fauna.  We  have  to  make  our  own  way  on  the  earth  and  do  the 
best  we  can  with  conditions  as  we  find  them.  Such  is  the  cosmos. 
No  human  religion  can  alter  it. 

In  this  present,  imperfect  life  of  ours,  there  is  but  one  grand, 
fascinating,  ever-satisfying  pursuit  —  the  pursuit  of  truth.  That 
pursuit  and  that  alone  ensures  a  progressive  growth  of  mind  and 
brain,  with  mental  health  and  moral  elevation.  For  truth  is  the 
soul  of  the  cosmos.  Even  as  we  grope  for  it  and  dredge  it  up, 
bit  by  bit,  from  research  with  microscope  and  test-tube,  it  invig- 


24  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

orates  and  renews  the  mind.  It  brings  joy  and  hope.  It  clears  the 
mental  sky.  It  puts  us  in  accord  and  in  harmony  with  tlie  steady 
beat  and  throb  of  the  whole  universe.  Faith  springs  from  tlie  ap- 
prehension of  truth.  It  is  faith  and  hope  which  have  pioneered  all 
the  great  achievements  of  man  in  the  past.  To  achieve  immortal 
life  we  have  need  to  grasp  the  facts,  discover  the  truth  and  per- 
ceive that  this  grand  promise  of  life-on-earth  can  be  realized,  that 
this  great  boon  of  life,  free  from  disease  and  death,  can  really  be 
w^on.  Then  will  begin  the  world-wide  effort  of  achieTemenL 
Then  will  be  seen  such  a  bending  to  the  task  of  the  energies  of 
mankind  as  the  earth  has  never  before  witnessed.  Literally  then, 
and  in  good  truth,  we  shall  be  working  for  life's  sake  with  new- 
born hope  ahead. 

And  this  leads  naturally  to  a  question,  raised  by  a  casuist  critic, 
as  to  the  real  or  relative  nature  of  truth.  In  the  course  of  a  long 
letter  of  dissent,  not  unleavened  by  sarcasm,  this  other  critic  says, 
"  To  my  mind  it  does  not  matter  a  rap  whether  your  '  scientific 
salvation,'  or  Christianity,  is  '  true,'  or  '  false,'  judged  by  any 
standard  which  you  or  I  might  set  up.  I  do  not  beheve  there 
is  any  such  thing  as  truth  in  that  sense.  Truth  is  what  a  per- 
son believes.  What  is  truth  to  him  one  year  may  be  false  to  him 
next  year.  So  it  is  never  worth  while  to  introduce  a  new  faith 
on  the  score  of  its  being  the  truth.  Go  on  with  the  faith  that 
people  have,  I  say.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  start  new  ones.  One 
thing  is  as  true  as  another,  if  people  only  think  so." 

It  would  be  just  as  well,  then,  for  people  to  believe  that  the 
moon  is  a  green  cheese  and  the  sun  a  huge  smiling  yellow  pumpkin, 
or  in  obeah,  or  witchcraft,  or  any  other  erroneous  doctrine,  con- 
trary to  fact. 

The  difficulty  with  this  critic  is  that  he  confounds  what  is  truth 
to  the  individual,  subjectively,  with  truth,  objectively.  Such  sub- 
jective "  truth  "  may  or  may  not  be  delusion ;  but  objective  truth 
is  absolute  and  eternal,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  forever.  The 
idealism  of  Berkeley  was  but  a  fantasy.  Objective  truth  is  the 
cosmic  state  of  things  in  a  real  universe.  A  certain  belief,  or 
tenet,  may  be  true,  subjectively,  to  a  believer,  yet  be  utterly  untrue 
de  facto,  that  is  to  say  objectively. 

Unless  what  is  true,  subjectively,  to  the  individual,  corresponds 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  25 

with  truth,  objectively,  his  belief  may  be  in  the  highest  degree  in- 
jurious to  him,  putting  him  out  of  all  harmony  and  peace  with 
nature  as  a  whole. 

The  problem  in  religion  and  everything  else  in  life,  is  ever  to 
make  what  seems  true  to  us,  personally,  approximate  real,  objective 
truth ;  in  other  words,  to  bring  our  minds  in  harmony  with  all 
nature.  That  is  what  growth  in  knowledge  signifies,  namely,  self- 
rectification. 

"  By  what  authority  do  you  style  Salvation  by  Science  the  creed 
of  Science?"  A  professor  of  botany  writes  from  a  Western 
university,  to  ask  the  above  question,  censoriously;  "  I  do  not  for 
a  moment  believe,"  he  continues,  "  that  scientists  endorse  it.  I  am 
sure  that  I  do  not,  nor  do  I  know  one  who  does,  or  would.  Your 
claim  that  Science  teaches  it,  or  tacitly  acquiesces  in  it,  is  prepos- 
terous and  misleading.  Science  is  fast  coming  to  learn,  through 
Psychical  Research,  that  there  is  present  everywhere  an  inner  world 
of  disembodied  spirits,  into  which  we  enter  at  death.  Our  knowl- 
edge grows  in  this  direction,  and  will  soon  displace  any  such  va- 
gary as  your  so-called  '  Promethean  Faith,'  which  is  a  hopeless,  im- 
possible faith,  at  best.  The  earth  is  not  a  fit  place  for  prolonged 
human  life;  nor  do  I  believe  that  it  could  ever  be  made  such.  Life 
soon  comes  to  an  end  here.  Chemical  action  tends  to  limit  all 
animal  organisms  to  comparatively  brief  life-times." 

Replying  to  the  last  of  this  botanist's  strictures  first,  it  may  be 
said  that  there  are  well-authenticated  instances  in  plant  life,  where 
trees  (sequoias,  baobabs)  have  lived  for  four  thousand  years;  also 
where  animal  organisms  —  the  elephant,  the  whale  —  have  roamed 
either  the  land  surface  or  the  seas  of  the  earth,  for  two  and  even 
three  centuries.  We  know,  too,  that  the  human  organism  has  sur- 
vived, in  fairly  good  health,  for  a  century  and  a  half. 

As  a  botanist  this  critic  should  have  known  —  before  saying  that 
prolonged  life  on  earth  is  impossible  —  that  under  certain  ideal 
conditions  plant  life  on  our  planet  is  deathless,  in  the  sense  of  sur- 
viving, potentially,  as  long  as  air  and  sunshine  co-exist. 

Furthermore,  that  the  stable,  well-nigh  invariable  formulas  and 
ratios  of  chemical  action,  on  the  earth's  surface,  are  among  the 
best  proofs  we  have  that  human  organisms  may  be  composed  and 
maintained  indefinitelv.     In  fact,  the  terrestrial  chemical  basis  for 


26  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

prolonged  life  is  almost  perfect.  As  to  this,  consult  any  well-in- 
structed chemist.  The  corpuscle  of  negative  electricity  (electron) 
and  the  atoms  and  molecules  of  nearly  all  tlie  so-called  "  elements  " 
of  terrestrial  matter  have  not,  so  far  as  known,  v9.ried  during  a 
hundred  millions  of  years. 

If  the  human  organism  under  the  imperfect  conditions  of  en- 
vironment and  food  which  prevail  at  present,  has  survived  in  health 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  is  it  preposterous  to  suppose  that 
under  ideally  better  conditions  it  might  survive  double  that  length 
of  time;  or  even  indefinitely,  under  progressively  improved  con- 
ditions? 

Undoubtedly  this  question  touches  down  to  deeper  levels.  This 
is  merely  a  reply  to  the  assertion  of  our  botanist  critic,  on  grounds 
which  he  himself  takes. 

Reverting  to  the  first  of  his  criticisms,  it  may  be  said,  frankly, 
that  no  class  of  men  dififer  more  variously,  or  are  less  well  organ- 
ized, inter  se,  as  regards  their  opinions  than  "  scientists."  Par- 
ticularly is  this  true  in  the  matter  of  their  religious  opinions. 

Then,  too,  there  are  scientists  and  scientists,  of  all  degrees  of 
erudition  and  cultivation,  scientists  soi-disant,  and  those  so  called, 
in  honor,  by  common  consent  of  their  fellow  men ;  also  thousands 
of  very  lovable,  cheerful  Christian  Scientists  who  claim  that  Jesus. 
too,  was  a  "  scientist  "  and  that  Mrs.  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy  was  an- 
other and  still  better  one.  It  is  a  matter  for  congratulation  that  so 
many  of  our  fellow  creatures  are,  or  wish  to  be,  scientists ;  it  is  a 
laudable  ainbition ;  and  science  is  large  enough,  broad  enough,  wide 
enough,  for  us  all  to  nestle  fraternally  together  under  its  wing  — 
if  we  can  only  think  so. 

There  was  no  intention  to  assert  in  these  pages  that  the  view 
put  forward  here  is  the  faith  or  creed  of  all  who  call  themselves 
scientists,  or  of  all  college  professors,  physicists  and  chemists,  or 
that  it  is  the  belief  even  of  all  those  most  renowned  in  scientific 
research.  Science  is  still  inchoate  and  unorganized  as  regards  the 
views  and  opinions  of  its  vast  personnel,  scattered  over  six  conti- 
nents and  two  hemispheres.  One  scientist  often  disputes  what  an- 
other asserts,  and  we  are  driven  to  discriminate. 

"  An  opponent,"  thus  styling  himself,  asks,  with  a  flavor  of 
derision,  "  Do  you  actually  believe  that  the  protozoa,  the  unicellu- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE   ACHIEVED  27 

lar  life  on  the  ancient  sea  beaches,  united  of  their  own  accord,  as 
sentient  creatures,  to  form  the  metazoa,  and  that  the  human  or- 
ganism, the  human  brain,  has  resulted  from  a  plan  or  design  on 
their  part  to  better  themselves  and  rise  in  the  scale  of  existence, 
looking  to  cell  immortality?" 

The  answer  is,  no ;  nor  was  any  such  position  taken  in  Salvation 
by  Science.  We  do  not  know  how  or  why  cells  combined,  whether 
by  accidental  cohering,  or  because  they  derived  some  immediate 
advantage  of  safety  or  food  by  keeping  together.  We  have  no 
more  supposed  that  the  combining  unicells  had  a  far-reaching  de- 
sign, or  foresaw  the  results  of  their  unions,  than  that  the  nidivid- 
ual  locusts  of  a  swarm  foresee  the  famine  that  may  follow  its 
flight ;  or  that  the  individual  Iwplite  under  Xenophon,  who  marched 
with  Cyrus  the  Younger,  foresaw  that  this  immortal  expedition 
would  open  the  way  to  the  victories  of  Alexander  and  to  the  third 
great  empire  of  antiquity. 

We  do  not  suppose  that  the  unicell  of  the  Silurian  beach  foresaw 
its  apotheosis  in  the  brain  neuron  of  a  Webster,  a  Washington, 
or  a  Lincoln.  The  cell  but  chose  to  do  what  felt  best  for  itself; 
■or  it  may  even  have  been  coerced  to  what  it  did  by  the  merest  acci- 
dent of  its  environment. 

With  greater  justice  one  of  the  associate  editors  of  the  Amer- 
ican Journal  of  Science  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  cells 
of  polyzoa  —  bristadella  miicedo,  for  example  —  are  more  fully 
organized  than  I  have  seemed  to  describe  them. 

This  is  a  deserved  criticism,  and  I  am  glad  to  record  it  here. 
At  this  late  age  of  the  earth's  vital  history,  it  is  not  easy  to  find 
illustrations  of  early  metazoons.  None  the  less,  we  would  be  slow 
to  believe  with  the  elder  Agassiz,  that  all  the  present  metazoons 
were  "  created  "  as  we  behold  them.  Bristadella  mucedo  was  cited 
in  this  connection,  not  as  being  one  of  the  early  simple  unions  of 
tmicellular  life,  but  merely  as  resembling  externally,  perhaps,  what 
these  early  unions  might  have  been  like. 

The  point  really  at  issue  here  is  whether  the  metazoons  devel- 
oped from  unicells,  or  that  the  tissue  cells  of  the  animal  organism 
form,  multitudinously,  in  this  same  organism  after  it  was  other- 
wise created.  The  former  position  is  the  one  held  in  Salvation 
■bx  Science. 


28  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

A  reviewing  editor  writes  to  ask,  "  Is  this  '  natural  salvation  ' 
idea  of  yours  the  same  thing  that  Aletchnikoff  advocated,  and  Loeb 
has  been  working  on  ?  " 

Professor  Metchnikoff,  of  the  Pasteur  Institute,  believed  that 
"old  age"  is  accelerated  by  the  abnormal  activity  (phagocitosis) 
of  the  white  corpuscles  of  the  blood,  whicli,  after  a  manner,  devour 
the  cells  of  bone,  muscle,  brain,  and  other  tissues. 

Professor  Loeb  has  held  the  theory  that  hfe  can  be  initiated 
artificially  by  chemical  agencies ;  he  has  claimed  tliat  fertilization 
of  the  ovum  can  be  thus  accomplished  chemically  in  the  case  of 
the  sea-urchin,  without  sexual  union.  If  fully  established,  tliis 
fact  will  be  of  the  liighest  importance. 

The  present  writer  does  not  know  what  were  Professor  Metchni- 
kofT's  views  or  beliefs,  touching  immortal  life  for  human  beings. 

Another  critic,  a  venerable  teacher  of  theolog}^  writes  in  pained 
surprise  :  —  "  Natural  salvation !  How  can  salvation  be  natural  ? 
Nature  dies.  Salvation  is  from  Gk)d  and  His  Son,  Sal\^tion  is 
above  nature.  It  is  supernatural  Natural  salvation  is  a  contradic- 
tion in  terms  —  a  self-contradiction!" 

What  a  picture  do  these  words  portray  of  the  indoctrinated, 
dogmatized  condition  of  this  man's  mind !  Sal\'ation  a  supernatu- 
ral rescue  at  the  hands  of  a  supernatural  being.  Otherwise  incom- 
prehensible. 

This,  indeed,  is  the  conventional,  church  attitude  of  mind,  the 
attitude  which  regards  the  "  soul  "  of  man  as  a  "  spirit,"  detach- 
able from  the  human  body  at  death,  or,  indeed,  in  trance,  or  cat- 
alepsy; a  spirit  to  be  saved  by  Divine  favor  or  grace,  divested  of 
the  body,  and  un-incorporate. 

It  is  this  conception  of  life  which  the  growth  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge invalidates.  Science  wastes  creeds  as  the  warm  spring  tor- 
rents melt  the  ice  of  winter.  There  is  no  way  of  chaining  human- 
ity to  a  creed,  except  by  arresting  its  mental  growth.  This  latter 
is  what  a  certain  church  in  America  has  sought  to  accomplish. 
There  is,  indeed,  no  other  way  of  perpetuating  creed  and  its  estab- 
lishments, except  by  laying  the  spell  of  church  authority  on  the 
brain,  and  effecting  a  semi-paralysis  of  this  troublesome  organ  of 
progress.  This  is  the  long-existent  condition  in  Mohammedan 
countries. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE   ACHIEVED  29 

It  is  quite  impossible  to  harmonize  Mohammedanism,  CathoH- 
cism,  or  Protestant  sectarianism,  with  the  growth  of  human  knowl- 
edge and  the  progress  of  scientific  discovery.  The  obstacle  is 
something  more  than  the  mere  fact  that  science  invalidates  cer- 
tain dogmas  of  the  church.  It  is  rather  that  the  mind  of  the  scien- 
tific student  outgrows  the  crudeness  and  the  injustice  of  the  creeds. 
Normally,  naturally,  the  world  grows  away  from  them. 

"  Your  contention  is  unique,  to  say  the  least  of  it,"  another  critic 
writes.  "  So  far  as  I  am  able  to  follow  your  reasoning,  you  fail 
wholly  to  distinguish  between  physical  and  psychic  powers.  You 
treat  them  as  if  of  common  origin,  as  if  there  were  no  essential 
difference  between  them.  This  to  me  is  chaotic  and  would  subvert 
psychology.  You  confound  sentience  with  the  insentient  forces  of 
matter.  You  make  neither  distinction,  nor  difference,  between 
them." 

There  is  no  difference,  that  is  to  say,  none  as  to  their  ultimate 
source  or  origin.  There  are  no  "  insentient  forces  of  matter." 
Indeed,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  matter,  in  the  former  sense  in 
which  the  word  was  used.  Matter,  practically,  for  us  is  energy,  and 
is  sentient  to  us  when  it  is  embraced  within  the  symbiotic  cordon 
of  our  organic  being,  or  self.  It  is  then  us,  that  is,  personal  to  us. 
Outside  that  cordon,  all  energy  appears  to  each  one  of  us  to  be 
insentient.  Sentience  and  insentience  are  merely  other  terms  for 
subjectivity  and  objectivity,  personality  and  impersonality. 

A  busy  New  York  lawyer  writes  in  a  friendly  spirit,  to  criticize 
what  he  deems  a  misuse  of  the  terms  nature  and  natural.  His 
conception  is  still  another  instance  of  the  hold  which  supernatural- 
ism  has  even  on  the  legal  mind.  "  I  do  not  regard  science,"  he 
says,  "  meaning  astronomy,  geology,  biology,  etc.,  as  being  prop- 
erly natural  or  in  the  order  of  nature.  I  regard  science  as  distinct 
from  and  extrinsic  to  nature.  Hence  natural  salvation,  to  be  at- 
tained from  the  progress  of  science,  is  to  me  a  confusion  of  terms, 
a  misnomer." 

In  other  words,  the  growth  of  human  knowledge  is  not  in  the 
order  of  nature,  but  supernatural,  or  preternatural ;  not  a  part  of 
the  natural  evolution  of  life  on  the  earth,  but  something  super- 
added to  it.  presumably  from  a  supernatural  source ! 

Another  critic  of  more  sectarian  bias  carries  the  same  conception 


30  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

to  greater  length.  "  But  for  Christianity,"  he  says,  "  which  is  a 
supernatural  revelation  from  God  to  man,  associated  with  a 
divine  effort  to  save  mankind,  there  would  be  no  science.  It  is 
the  elevation  and  enlightenment  of  the  minds  of  men  that  come 
to  us  through  Jesus  Christ,  which  makes  modern  science  possible." 
This  writer  appears  not  to  remember  that  science  and  the  sci- 
ences were  well  advanced  in  India,  Egypt,  and  Greece  many  cen- 
turies before  the  era  of  Jesus. 

Critics  are  of  many  types  and  tempers.  Not  a  few  condemn 
what  their  fellows  approve. 

"Who  would  want  to  live  for  centuries  in  a  world  like  this!" 
writes  "  one  who  dissents."  "  Three  score  years  and  ten  is  quite 
enough  of  it.  Too  much.  Think  of  the  horrible  monotony  of  a 
thousand  years  of  human  life.  It  is  a  frightful  picture.  The  Lord 
deliver  us  from  such  as  you!  So  far  from  encouraging  an  effort 
like  yours,  it  should  be  summarily  stopped,  if  not  by  an  indignant 
public  sentiment,  then  by  government  interference ;  that  is,  if  there 
were  the  slightest  danger  of  your  bringing  about  such  a  calamity. 
I  am  happy  to  think  there  is  not.  Human  life  will  never  be  much 
prolonged,  for  the  very  good  reason  that  it  ought  not  to  be.  It  is 
not  worth  it;  and  nature  will  probably  look  out  for  that.  So  I  do 
not  fear  you.  Death  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  great  scheme  of 
things  as  Life.  It  is  the  other  part  of  the  great  Plan.  But  lo  and 
behold,  a  little  dying  mortal  now  thinks  that  he  is  going  to  change 
it  all!  It  is  enough  to  make  the  angels  weep,  and  the  devils 
laugh!" 

We  will  allow  this  to  stand,  and  pass  to  another  of  similar  pur- 
port, but  bearing  the  impress  of  a  less  passionate  mind. 

"  I  should  fear  such  a  gift  as  you  seek  to  confer  on  human  be- 
ings. It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  earthly  life  could  be  made  of 
sufficient  interest  to  give  us  continual  enjoyment  for  long  periods 
of  time.  The  Wandering  Jew  was  but  a  fiction,  yet  I  believe  it 
embodies  the  truth  concerning  human  life  on  the  earth.  It  does 
not  seem  to  me  that  the  earth  offers,  or  can  ever  offer,  a  proper 
theater  or  arena  for  immortal  life.  I  am  therefore  inclined  to 
consider  death  as  a  blessing  instead  of  an  evil,  and  that  your  pro- 
posed effort  to  'achieve'  immortal  life  on  the  earth  by  applied 
science  is  a  mistaken  one." 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  3 1 

The  above  is  a  thoughtful  statement  of  a  widely  prevalent  view 
of  human  life.     It  deserves  an  equally  thoughtful  reply. 

It  is  conceded  at  the  outset  that  life,  as  the  majority  of  our  race 
now  live,  is  not  worth  prolonging  far  beyond  the  pleasures  of 
youth.  Immortalizing  such  lives,  subject  to  all  their  present  ills, 
hardships,  and  discouragements,  would  be  of  the  nature  of  a 
penalty,  instead  of  a  reward.  If  a  greater  experience  which  came 
from  longer  life  did  not  enable  them  to  attain  a  better  mode  of 
life,  with  fewer  pains  and  ills,  immortality  on  the  earth  would  be 
inadvisable  for  them. 

The  earth  is  what  we  make  it.  The  reason  why  the  majority 
of  mankind  are  miserable  on  the  earth  instead  of  happy,  is  to  be 
found  in  them,  in  their  ignorance  and  perverted  minds,  rather  than 
that  the  earth  does  not  afford  an  "  arena  "  for  happy  life.  Some 
are  happy  here,  others  not;  the  cause  is  largely  subjective. 

Considered  physically,  the  terrestrial  globe  which  we  inhabit  is 
not,  under  nature,  a  comfortable  abode  for  man.  But  it  has  vast 
capabilities,  enormous  resources  for  improvement.  It  is  capable 
of  being  made  a  paradise,  a  true  Eden  in  the  universe.  Unlimited 
power  falls  on  its  surface  from  the  solar  sphere,  power  which  can 
be  bent  to  human  uses.  Its  climate  can  be  controlled  and  made 
whatever  we  desire  it,  its  temperature  regulated  to  the  needs  of 
life.  It  is  not  the  earth  in  its  present  condition  which  we  contem- 
plate as  the  future  abode  of  immortal  man,  but  the  earth  improved 
and  made  "  heaven."  The  paradisation  of  the  earth  presents 
merely  physical  problems,  many  of  which  are  already  being  under- 
taken successfully.  The  earth,  made  heaven,  is  one  of  the  condi- 
tions which  will  come  with  the  achievement  of  immortal  life.  The 
dawn  of  this  grand  future  for  the  sons  of  men  is  already  breaking 
on  the  horizon  of  science:  and  what  we  have  now  most  need  of  is 
faith  and  courage  to  work  for  it;  to  cast  aside  our  slavish  fears  of 
the  supernatural,  and  work  to  save  ourselves  from  the  ills  of  life; 
to  cease  from  idle  prayers  to  be  saved  by  supernatural  agencies, 
and  devote  our  energies  to  self-salvation. 

Again,  life  on  earth  is  not  desirable  for  those  on  whom  old  age 
has  set  its  insignia  of  infirmity  and  deformity  with  all  the  attend- 
ant daily  pains  and  aches.  A  natural  revulsion  from  life  ensues 
from  the  senescent  condition  of  the  organism.  Life  grows  less 
and  less  desirable  until  often  the  aged  one  longs  for  release  from  it. 


2,2  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

This  mental  attitude  touching  hfe  is  purely  the  result  of  the 
decline  of  the  associate  cell  life  of  which  the  human  body  is  com- 
posed. It  is  to  the  regeneration  of  the  component  cell  life  of  the 
organism  that  our  present  researches  are  directed.  The  object  of 
them  is  to  renovate  the  tissues,  renew  the  cells,  and  maintain  the 
human  body  in  the  adolescent  condition:  the  muscles  and  digestive 
organs  in  a  state  of  normal  health  and  efficiency,  the  brain  in  a 
condition  of  mental  power,  hopefulness,  and  ambition. 

It  is  not  likely  that  such  a  person  would  desire  to  die,  at  least, 
not  on  an  improved  and  beautified  earth  where  the  growth  of 
knowledge  and  the  rapid  advances  of  scientific  discovery  gave  op- 
portunity for  continuous  mental  growth. 

But,  reverting  to  our  passionate  critic,  it  may  be  said  that  Sal- 
vation by  Science  would  by  no  means  sentence  a  man  to  life.  It 
merely  enlarges  his  freedom  to  live  or  not.  He  does  not  have  to 
live.  In  the  phrase  of  firm  old  Marcus  Aurelius,  ''  the  open  door  " 
is  always  there,  under  his  hand,  with  liberty  to  issue  forth  to  the 
unknown  gods. 

But  there  is  always  a  palpable  insincerity  in  these  vehement 
assertions  of  those  who  declare  that  they  do  not  want  or  care  for 
longer  life.  Possibly  not.  after  physical  existence  is  overburdened 
by  disease  and  pain.  Yet  the  writer  risks  nothing  in  saying  that  if 
he  could  offer  to  the  world  twenty  years,  even  ten,  of  added  life 
in  good  health,  at  a  reasonable  figure  in  cash,  he  could  easily  be- 
come the  greatest  Croesus  that  ever  trod  the  mundane  sphere! 
Make  no  mistake,  my  friends.  Life  is  the  greatest  prize  which 
science  will  ever  have  to  offer  the  w^orld.  But  it  will  be  life  en- 
nobled in  mind  as  well  as  perfected  in  body. 

One  who  terms  herself  "  a  believer  in  Salvation  by  Science,"  has 
written  to  ask,  "  How  can  these  truths  be  disseminated  ?  How  can 
this  new,  better  Faith  be  propagated  ?  " 

The  capacity  to  receive  truth  comes  from  mental  growth  and 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  These  truths  will  be  apprehended 
and  accepted  as  mental  evolution  in  America  proceeds.  It  is  the 
growth  of  knowledge  and  the  de\-elopment  of  brain,  which  will 
prepare  the  way  to  accept  Salvation  by  Science.  Unformed,  un- 
developed mind  is  the  stronghold  of  erroneous  creeds.  Further 
education  is  the  only  remedy. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  33 

"  A  Physiologist  "  from  that  great  metropolis  of  much  which 
is  new  and  good,  Chicago,  writes  to  propound  the  following  query, 
in  dissent. 

"  With  regard  to  an  improved  cell  food  and  the  lengthening  of 
cell  life  from  it,  how  is  this  to  be  inferred?  We  derive  the  vital 
energies  of  the  human  organism,  mechanical  and  chemical,  from 
something  akin  to  combustion  (katabolism)  of  the  'protoplasm' 
of  the  cell,  which  is  thereby  broken  down,  its  stored-up  energy 
liberated  and  waste  products  —  carbon  dioxide,  urea  —  continu- 
ously produced. 

"  With  any  conceivable  kind  of  cell  food,  however  '  improved,' 
would  not  these  waste  products  have  to  be  produced,  if  organic  life 
went  on?  AVhat  real  alleviation  of  the  '  duress  "  of  cell  life  would 
be  effected  ?  Granting  that  cell  '  protoplasm  '  has  to  be  broken 
down  in  order  to  liberate  energy  for  organic  maintenance,  how 
will  the  use  of  an  improved  cell  food  relieve  the  organism  of  the 
onus  of  getting  rid  of  its  waste  products?  " 

In  reply,  it  may  be  well  to  say  again,  that  two  parallel  sets  of 
phenomena  go  on,  pari  passu,  in  the  cell-of-life  whatever  its  situa- 
tion, namely,  the  anabolic  and  katabolic,  a  building-up  or  reinforce- 
ment of  the  cell  contents  and  a  breaking-dovv'n  of  the  same.  Re- 
stricted to  the  cell,  the  building-up  or  reinforcement  is  all  that  is 
properly  covered  by  the  term  nutrition.  The  breaking-down  and 
consequent  liberation  of  energy  is  quite  another  matter,  required 
by  the  necessities  of  the  environment.  In  other  words,  the  cell  has 
to  work  and  use  up  its  "  protoplasm,"  in  order  to  get  on  and  live 
in  the  world. 

But  here  a  qualification  must  be  made.  W^e  do  not  know  yet 
what  this  apparent  combustion  of  the  cell  "  protoplasm  "  really 
is,  nor  to  what  extent  it  aft'ects  the  cell  contents.  It  is  not  like 
ordinary  combustion ;  so  much  is  known.  That  is  to  say,  a  certain 
part  en  masse  of  the  cell  "  protoplasm  "  is  not  consumed,  leaving 
a  certain  per  cent,  unconsumed.  The  protoplasm  of  the  cell  is 
found  to  be  a  highly  organized  fabric  which  shrinks  throughout, 
when  the  cell  works  and  suft'ers,  much  as  a  fat  horse  grows  thin 
and  poor  when  put  to  severe  labors.  There  is  combustion  of 
protoplasm  of  the  cell  in  no  other  sense. 

Frankly,  we  do  not  know  as  yet  just  what  takes  place  when 
intracellular  shrinkage   occurs    from   work    and   the   liberation   of 


34  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

energy.  The  cell  protoplasm  cannot  be  compared  properly  with 
a  quantity  of  coal,  oil,  or  other  combustible.  It  is  highly  organ- 
ized, and  tax  it  never  so  severely,  that  organization  is  preserved 
as  long  as  the  cell  lives.  It  is  deteriorated  as  a  whole  rather  than 
expended  in  part ;  —  and  we  venture  to  predict  that  this  qualifica- 
tion will  be  found  a  very  important  one  as  our  knowledge  in- 
creases. 

The  same  qualification  must  be  made  with  regard  to  the  build- 
ing-up (anabolism)  of  the  cell  protoplasm  by  nutrition.  It  is  not 
added  to  en  masse,  but  improved  and  rounded  out  as  to  its  entire 
interior  organization.  It  is  a  case  of  fatting  up  the  horse,  grown 
poor  from  hard  work  and  exposure,  and  not  of  pouring  so  much 
oil  into  a  nearly  empty  oil  can. 

True,  carbon  dioxide  and  urea  result  from  work  and  fatigue  of 
the  cell.  A  destructive  metabolism  appears  to  have  taken  place ; 
but  we  do  not  yet  know  the  intracellular  modus  of  it. 

Reverting  now  to  the  matter  in  question,  namely,  the  ameliora- 
tion likely  to  be  brought  about  in  the  life  of  the  physiological  cell 
by  a  perfected  cell  food,  the  best  estimate  I  am  able  to  obtain  at 
present  is  in  effect  that  fully  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  entire  organic 
energy,  liberated  by  the  average  human  organism,  that  is  to  say, 
seventy  per  cent,  of  its  entire  available  energies  from  protoplasmic 
"  combustion,"  is  expended  on  our  food  stuffs,  as  at  present  in- 
gested, in  order  to  accomplish  digestion,  peptonization,  admixture 
with  bile,  oxygenation,  etc.,  etc.,  before  the  food  is  fit  to  enter  the 
blood  circulatory  and  go  to  the  cells  for  their  nutrition.  Seventy 
per  cent,  of  that  entire  combustion  from  which  result  waste  prod- 
ucts of  carbon  dioxide  and  urea. 

If  therefore  this  seventy  per  cent,  of  combustion  and  waste 
products  could  be  rendered  unnecessary  in  the  organism  by  the 
introduction  of  a  perfected  cell  food,  the  question  asked  by  our 
"  Physiologist  "  critic  would  seem  to  be  answered  in  part. 

Criticism  which  is  denunciatory  may  be  passed  over.  It  would 
appear  that  one  has  but  to  doubt,  in  a  published  work,  that  death 
is  an  irremediable  evil,  to  set  a  thousand  devout  minds  aflame 
with  animosity.  The  reason  for  this  is,  of  course,  that  settled  re- 
ligious beliefs  are  disturbed.  Death  has  long  been  made  a  corner- 
stone of  religion. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  35 

Once,  in  a  Mohammedan  city,  it  became  apparent  to  the  writer 
that  the  mentation  of  the  people  was  automatized  by  the  Koran: 
Koranized  beyond  human  power  to  change,  alter  or  make  progress- 
ive. A  fixed  creed  not  only  prohibits  thought  in  new  channels, 
but  actually  arrests  further  brain  growth  and,  as  centuries  pass, 
lowers  the  cranial  arch.  That  is  what  has  happened  in  the  older 
animal  orders,  fixed  modes  and  ways  of  thinking  and  acting  have 
come  to  be  "  instinct,"  which  degrade  the  brain  to  automatism. 

The  Koran  is  a  mass  of  absurdities,  but  faintly  leavened  by  a 
few  Avise  adages  and  pious  declarations  concerning  Allah :  as  a 
whole  utterly  unworthy  of  belief  in  the  w^orld  of  to-day.  Yet  the 
Mohammedan  peoples  would  be  exterminated  rather  than  change 
their  faitli. 

The  Bible  is  a  much  better  book  than  the  Koran  and  presents 
a  far  better,  more  divine  Christ  than  Mohammed.  Nevertheless, 
it  might  be  a  misfortune  to  have  the  American  brain  enslaved  to  a 
fixed  creed.  If  the  evolution  of  life  is  a  fact  and  human  progress 
desirable,  then  there  should  be,  and  can  be,  no  such  thing  as  a  fixed 
creed.  Our  beliefs  should  be  subject  to  change  from  the  grow'th 
of  knowledge.  It  is  because  the  American  brain  persists  in  making 
progress  in  spite  of  unchangeable  dogmas  that  many  heresy  trials 
occur  and  a  general  metamorphosis  of  creed  is  now  going  on. 
And  the  end  is  not  yet. 

Whether  the  plan  for  a  scientific  renaissance  of  Christianity  as 
presented  in  this  work  will  find  favor  with  the  reader  or  not,  de- 
pends largely  or  wholly  on  what  that  reader  believes  already 
touching  life  and  mankind.  If  he  has  come  to  regard  man  as  one 
of  the  mammalian  orders  of  life  on  the  earth  and  corelated  to 
other  orders ;  not  differing  in  his  origin  and  evolution ;  developed 
on  the  same  multicellular  plan;  very  like  in  skeleton,  muscles  and 
nervous  system ;  on  the  same  plane  as  regards  nutrition,  assimila- 
tion, metabolism  and  excretion  of  waste ;  giving  birth  to  offspring 
by  the  same  process  of  germ  production  in  ova ;  old-aging  in  the 
same  way  and  from  the  same  causes ;  and,  in  short,  differing  from 
his  animal  congeners  only  in  the  respect  of  having  greatly  sur- 
passed them,  and  being  still  progressive;  —  if  such,  I  say,  are  his 
views  of  human  life,  this  work  will  be  found  not  only  in  line  wnth 
them,  but  will  suggest  the  logical  outcome  of  human  development, 
and  help  him,  I  believe,  to  form  more  practical  and  more  humane 


36  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

beliefs  for  his  guidance  in  the  future.  One  object  of  the  present 
work,  indeed,  is  to  engender  hope  ahead,  to  present  the  great,  sad 
tragedy  of  hfe  on  the  earth,  as  enacted  in  the  Hght  of  promise  for 
the  future  and  as  having  a  grand  end  in  view,  — 

"  To  which  the  whole  creation  move3." 

In  view  of  the  many  criticisms,  it  may  be  advisable  to  define 
again  what  is  meant  in  this  work  by  Immortal  Life.  The  common 
conception  of  it  is  what  is  meant :  prolonged  personal  life,  possessed 
of  all  its  faculties,  not  limited  by  death. 

The  objection  that  it  is  not  possible  to  conceive  of  immortal 
life,  any  more  than  to  conceive  of  eternity  or  infinity,  need  not 
here  be  considered,  or  argued.  What  is  meant  by  immortal  life  is 
life  not  limited  by  death,  after  a  brief  lifetime,  namely,  personal 
life  at  will  and  as  long  as  desired;  life  not  saddened  as  now  by  the 
constant  fear  and  certainty  of  death;  life  with  opportunity  to  live 
in  the  full  enjo}Tnent  of  every  faculty  and  every  joy  of  kindred, 
friends  and  mundane  comfort;  beatified  life,  not  frustrated  by 
disease  and  death  at  the  threshold  of  its  grand  possibilities.  The 
question  of  how  many  years  or  how  many  eons  is  immaterial,  and 
better  left  to  the  future. 

By  a  coincidence,  two  letters  of  inquiry  were  received  on  the 
same  day,  one  from  a  prominent  clergyman  of  the  Unitarian  creed, 
the  other  from  an  ecclesiastic  of  the  Anglican  church,  both  asking 
the  same  question,  namely,  "  What,  exactly,  is  meant  by  the  term, 
'  a  scientific  renaissance  of  Christianity,'  as  you  employ  it  in  a  re- 
cent work,  entitled  Salvation  by  Science  f  " 

What  was  meant  is,  I  wrote  in  reply,  the  realization  of  the  ac- 
tual teachings  of  Jesus  by  means  of  applied  science ;  realization  of 
the  Messianic  ideal  of  peace,  good  will  and  co-operation  in  great 
works  for  the  improvement  of  the  human  lot ;  realization  of  the 
"  Kingdom  of  God  "  on  earth,  with  the  attainment  of  immortal 
life,  from  research  and  scientific  discoveries. 

To  comprehend  what  is  meant  by  this,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in 
mind  that  much  of  church  Christianity,  at  present,  is  Christian  only 
in  name.  The  exalted  Personage  who  lived  nineteen  hundred 
years  ago,  in  Palestine,  and  from  whom  our  era  dates,  conceived 
himself  to  be  the  Hebrew  Messiah,  and  sought  to  found  a  divine 


HOW    II     WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  2>7 

Utopia,  the  denizens  of  which,  he  taught,  would  be  immortal 
through  purity  of  heart,  meekness,  mercy,  unselfishness,  brotherly 
love,  righteousness,  and  right  living  generally.  This  is  evident  to 
all  who  read  even  the  present  gospel  histories,  with  an  unbiased 
mind.  How  sadly  do  those  belittle  him  who  teach  that  he  was  a 
God.  He  is  infinitely  greater  and  grander  as  a  man  —  a  great- 
hearted, pure-minded  youth,  inspired  by  a  noble  ambition  to  realize 
the  national  hope  of  Israel,  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  which 
the  Hebrew  prophets  had  long  foretold,  the  coming  of  the  son  of 
David,  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

Who  will  write  the  real  biography  of  this  great-hearted  young 
Jew?  Futile  are  tlie  lucubrations  of  that  legion  of  historical 
critics  certain  of  whom  even  deny  that  such  a  person  as  Jesus  ever 
lived !  Truly,  a  historical  critic  easily  goes  astray.  As  well  deny 
that  Mohammed,  or  Siddartha,  or  Confucius  has  lived ;  or  Caesar, 
or  Hannibal,  or  Augustus,  or  even  Washington,  or  Lincoln!  A 
great  human  personality  is  never  obliterated  from  the  life  of  the 
race,  and  never  wholly  manufactured  by  myth  or  tradition.  Jesus 
lived  in  Judea,  and  lives  on  still  in  the  communal  life  of  ]\Ian. 

For  he  was  the  great  communal  man,  the  founder  of  the  true 
communal  race-Ufe,  the  prophet  of  the  future  meta-metazoon. 
Nor,  despite  all  this  present  confusion  of  tenets  and  dogmas,  are 
his  ideas  difficult  to  understand.  He  attempted  to  embody  and 
realize  the  Hebrew  Hope,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  come  on  the 
earth.  He  believed  that  his  "  kingdom  of  heaven,"  and  with 
it  immortal  life  for  the  sons  of  men,  would  come  from  moral 
purity,  brotherly  love  to  our  fellow  men,  bearing  one  another's 
burdens,  mercy,  meekness  and  faithful  service  in  all  things,  purg- 
ing the  heart  of  selfishness  and  pride;  in  a  word,  living  for  our 
fellow  men,  merging  our  lives,  without  reserve,  in  the  larger  life 
of  our  race. 

Such  was  the  life-scheme  of  young  Joshua,  or  Jesus,  of  Naza- 
reth, such  the  kingdom  of  heaven  which  he  dreamed  of  founding 
in  Judea,  a  province  of  Rome,  nineteen  centuries  ago.  Tempo- 
rarily it  failed,  or  seemed  to  fail,  but  has  not  failed,  nor  can  it  fail, 
though  long  in  coming.  It  comes,  none  the  less.  What  are  nine- 
teen centuries  in  the  evolution  of  an  idea  like  that  when  compared 
with  the  long  life  of  our  race!  The  full  grandeur  of  the  Idea  has 
as  yet  scarcely  dawned  in  the  minds  of  men. 


38  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Siipernaturalism,  with  its  tenets  of  disembodied  soul  life,  nether 
worlds  and  upper  worlds,  was  grafted  upon  Jesus'  simple,  beauti- 
ful scheme  of  immortal  life,  by  church  synods  and  conferences, 
often  for  political  purposes.  That  simple,  beautiful  scheme  of 
deathless  human  life,  taken  by  itself,  stands  forth  as  fine  and  true 
as  ever;  for  it  is  natural  truth.  Did  Jesus  perceive  intuitively 
what  it  has  taken  science  so  many  centuries  to  learn?  One  might 
almost  think  so.  In  no  respect,  in  no  particular,  not  even  in  spirit, 
is  the  real  Messianic  scheme  like  Romish,  Greek,  or  Protestant 
Christianity.  When  the  church  adopted  Zend-Avestan  supernatu- 
ralism,  it  lost  Jesus  by  the  waysides  of  Judea.  Even  so  modern 
Buddhism  has  evolved  itself  clean  away  from  its  founder  and  is 
now  practically  an  alien  cult.  Church  Christianity  to-day  has  but 
a  vague  claim  on  the  believer  in  Jesus,  and  little  right  to  the  use 
of  that  name.  Humanity  will  ere  long  turn  again  to  the  man  of 
Galilee,  and  seek  to  find  out  what  he  really  taught. 

\\'ho  will  write  the  real  biography  of  this  great-hearted  young 
Galilean?  It  should  not  be  a  wholly  impossible  task,  even  now. 
Renan  has  come  nearest  it,  yet  Renan  lacks  reality  and  human 
atmosphere.  Not  unfrequently  he  confounds  the  two  Jesuses,  the 
actual  young  Judean.  and  the  idealized,  supernatural  Jesus  of  the 
Church.  For  two  there  are,  the  one  real,  the  other  largely  ideal, 
and  to  rightly  comprehend  Christianity,  it  is  necessary  to  keep 
them  distinct. 

The  first  is  the  young  Nazarene  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius  Cresar, 
of  unknown  paternity  and  uncertain,  though  probably  Jewish 
heredity.  The  youth  of  high  thought,  who  read  the  law  and  the 
prophets,  particularly  Isaiah,  and  conceived  the  noble  ambition  to 
become  the  long-prophesied  Prince  of  Peace,  the  [Messiah  of  the 
Jews,  the  Redeemer  of  Israel,  and  to  found  "  the  kingdom  of 
God  "  at  Jerusalem. 

Whoever  wishes  to  understand  the  ideas  of  the  real  Jesus,  and 
comprehend  what  he  attempted  to  do,  must  read  the  books  of 
Isaiah  and  of  Daniel  and  Jeremiah,  but  especially  the  first.  Isaiah 
was  his  fount  of  inspiration ;  fired  by  it,  and  conscious  of  unusual 
powers,  he  assayed  the  supreme  effort  of  realizing  in  himself  the 
long-delayed  national  Hope  of  the  Hebrews.  \Miat  the  prophets 
had  foretold,  he  resolved  to  be. 

Such  efforts  are  not  imposture,  but  the  birth  of  eras.     The  con- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  39 

sciousness  of  lofty  powers  sanctifies  the  self-exaltation.  All  the 
great  cults  of  mankind  have  been  initiated  thus  boldly,  thus  am- 
bitiously, thus  personally.  It  is  on  these  lines  that  a  Life  of  Jesus 
might  be  written  which  would  possess  actual  interest  in  America 
to-day. 

The  other  Jesus,  the  Jesus  Christ  of  modern  Christianity,  is 
largely  an  abstraction,  an  apotheosis. 

Such  idealization  and  deification  of  the  great  characters  of  hu- 
man history  is  not  uncommon.  Even  within  our  own  brief  na- 
tional history  we  have  an  idealized  Washington,  and  an  equally 
glorified  Lincoln  —  almost  laughably  unlike  the  homely  lUinoisan. 

Thus  Siddartha  was  idealized  in  the  Buddha,  Mohammed  in  the 
Prophet  of  x^llah;  and  in  the  Classic  era,  ^sculapius,  Prometheus 
and  the  entire  Pagan  Pantheon,  every  divinity  of  which  had  prob- 
ably a  personal  beginning,  even  as  Jesus,  which  later  ages  first 
idealized,  then  deified.  This  is  the  historic  habit  and  tendency  of 
humanity.  Thus  originated  all  mythology.  The  Gods  were  at 
first  human  beings,  who  came  in  time  to  be  idealized  and  finally 
worshipped.  This  strong  conviction  of  potential  godhood  appears 
to  be  an  intuition  of  the  human  intellect. 

In  like  manner  Jesus  became  the  concept  of  an  adored  Son  of 
God  incarnate,  no  longer  human,  but  divine ;  the  intercessor  and 
pleader  for  man  with  the  stern  Hebrew  Jehovah ;  the  patient  bearer 
of  the  sins  of  the  world,  bleeding,  dying  on  the  cross  for  sinful 
man. 

In  the  larger  light,  it  is  a  portraiture  of  the  best  instincts  of 
the  race,  a  high  and  noble  conception  of  a  human  life,  transformed 
and  transfigured  to  a  divine  one :  a  loving,  sorrowful,  great-hearted 
divine  man,  worshipped  and  believed  in  as  a  potential  saviour  of 
all.  A  beautiful  conception,  slowly  worked  out  through  nine- 
teen centuries  of  human  life  on  the  earth;  a  picture  and  portrait 
of  what  every  human  life  ought  to  be,  and  of  what  it  may  become 
by  living  a  better,  holier  life. 

There  is  a  moral  grandeur  in  this  slow,  beauteous  growth  of 
a  divine  ideal  of  what  human  life  should  be  and  may  become, 
something  at  once  grand  and  sacred,  the  evolution  of  the  best  there 
is  in  us. 

Gradually,  as  the  race  has  developed,  this  idealized  Jesus  has 
grown  up  with  it,  purifying  itself  from  the  older,  harsher  ideals  of 


40  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

blood-guiltiness,  ordeal,  revenge,  and  merciless  retribution,  evolving 
the  commune,  sympathetic,  loving  Saviour  of  to-day,  the  true 
heart's  brother  of  us  all,  divine  only  because  he  is  first  human,  and 
what  we  may  all  become;  the  evolution  of  godhood  within  us. 

.\nd  because  it  is  a  day  set  apart  to  this  divine  ideal  in  us,  the 
Christian  Sabbath  is  still  a  holy  day,  and  should  remain  such,  con- 
secrated to  the  growth  of  this  higher  altruistic  ideal,  this  spirit 
and  sentiment  to  bear  each  other's  burdens  and  to  share-and-share- 
alike  the  hardships  and  vicissitudes  of  our  hard  terrestrial  habitat. 
For  there  will  never  be  any  real  peace  on  earth  and  good-will 
among  men  —  probably  ought  not  to  be  —  till  we  all  accept  this 
ideal,  till  every  man  of  us  merges  his  selfishness  and  accepts  equal 
opportunities  with  his  fellows.  Then  —  when  we  all  stand  to- 
gether, shoulder  to  shoulder,  heart  to  heart  —  then  will  begin  that 
commune  life  of  great  works  which  will  transform  earth  to 
Heaven,  transfigure  and  spiritualize  the  human  organism  and  win 
immortal  life. 

It  is  thus  that  the  real  Jesus  lives  on  in  the  brain  of  the  race, 
idealized,  glorified.  He  embodied  the  Messianic  idea  of  a  loving 
brotherhood  of  pan-humanity  on  earth.  Never  will  that  person- 
ality die,  nor  cease.  As  centuries  pass  it  but  enters  on  new  leases 
of  Hfe. 

Twentieth-century  science  with  its  late  new  knowledge  of  mat- 
ter, cell  metabolism,  human  personality  and  the  ether-of-space,  but 
iterates,  realizes  and  makes  practical  the  Idea  which  inspired  that 
lone,  bright  Genius  of  Palestine,  in  the  days  of  the  Csesars.  We 
are  but  giving  form  and  dynamic  potency  to  that  Idea,  clothing  it 
with  physical  forces  for  actual,  material  realization.  And  let  it  be 
said  again  that  this  realization  of  the  Idea  is  impossible  only  to 
those  who  cannot  summon  courage  and  hope  to  work  for  it. 

It  has  been  said  often,  and  said  as  a  reproach,  that  modern 
science,  meaning  the  systematized  growth  of  human  knowledge  for 
three  centuries,  has  invalidated  nuich  of  religious  faith  and  left 
nothing  in  its  place ;  that  this  self -same  science  controverts  the  creeds, 
particularly  the  Christian  creed,  and  offers  no  satisfactory  substi- 
tute ;  that  its  incessant  advances  sap  popular  belief  in  salvation  by 
supernatural  grace  and  yield  no  consolation  at  death.  In  brief,  that 
it  is  of  the  nature  of  a  destructive  agency,  an  iconoclastic  force. 


now    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  4I 

which  subverts  the  long-estabhshed  cults  of  mankind,  leaving  noth- 
ing with  which  to  replace  theuL 

Hence  the  present  attitude  of  conservative  thought,  the  serious- 
minded  thousands  who  have  the  common  good  at  heart,  who  look 
to  the  past  as  well  as  the  future,  and  who  instinctively  feel  the 
world's  needs. 

All  this  great  conservative  class  of  minds,  the  class  which  holds 
humanity  together  in  its  larger  evolution  and  steadies  it  in  its 
onward  progress  in  time,  has  long  viewed  this  aspect  of  science, 
the  creed-subverting  aspect,  with  a  certain  distrust  and  apprehen- 
sion, fearing  that  not  alone  religious  doctrines  will  be  discredited, 
but  that  common  morality  will  slacken  and  an  era  of  personal  self- 
ishness supervene  in  place  of  the  higher  spiritual  mentality  of  our 
forefathers.  In  earnest  of  their  apprehensions,  conservatives 
point  to  the  sordid  self-seeking  of  the  last  half-century,  its  money- 
greed,  church  hypocrisy  and  practical  atheism. 

Yet  year  by  year,  science  has  gone  on,  sphinxlike,  nullifying 
many  beliefs  of  our  fathers,  until  with  this  whole  great  class  of 
conservative  thinkers  and  well-wishers  of  their  race,  there  has 
come  a  kind  of  consternation  as  to  what  can  possibly  result  from 
so  revolutionary  a  growth  of  human  knowledge,  or  in  what  future 
faith  it  can  eventuate. 

And  hitherto  no  answer  to  the  question  has  been  forthcoming. 
The  efifacement  of  creeds  has  gone  on  with  no  hint  as  to  replace- 
ment. Science,  like  the  Hun  of  history,  has  seemed  to  be  leaving 
nothing  behind  save  ashes  and  desolation;  and  from  some  quar- 
ters grave  fears  have  found  expression  lest  with  the  fading  out  of 
rehgious  belief,  our  civilization  should  wither  from  its  higher 
sources,  and  the  genus  houw  revert  to  the  lower  order  from  \\hich 
it  sprang. 

Hence  the  reproach.     Hence  the  distrust  of  science. 

In  a  sense  the  reproach  has  been  merited.  Scientific  knowledge 
has  grown  slowly,  impersonally,  without  responsibility,  without 
plan  and  without  regard  to  results.  It  is  the  mind  and  brain  of 
the  race  which  has  been  developing  and  garnering  data  for  future 
use.  The  invalidation  of  old  creeds  has  been  incidental  merely 
to  this  growth  in  knowledge,  without  design  or  animus.  These 
centuries  of  incubation  have  l^een  required,  to  pass  forward  and 
formulate  a  better  creed,  one  nearer  the  truth. 


42  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

But  the  time  for  it  has  come.  The  reproach  can  no  longer  be 
uttered.  Science,  the  organized  scientific  knowledge  of  our  era, 
has  now  its  nobler  creed  to  offer  those  who  are  willing  to  accept  it. 

But  on  what  grounds  does  it  rest?  What  esthetic  grounds? 
What  appeal  does  it  make  to  our  sense  of  the  beautiful,  the  grand, 
the  divine?  What  fuller  development  will  it  call  forth  of  all  that 
is  best  and  noblest  in  the  nature  of  man?  Does  it  hold  promise 
of  immortal  life?  For  it  must  do  this,  or  fail.  To  what  facts  and 
truths  does  it  refer  its  claim?  An  attempt  at  a  general  statement 
of  these  facts  will  be  made  in  subsequent  chapters  of  this  volume. 

Let  it  be  said  here,  however,  that  there  is  no  expectation  of  dis- 
covering "  philosophers'  stones,"  or  "  panaceas  "  on  sale  in  bottles; 
nor  is  anything  in  the  nature  of  a  "  wandering  Jew  "  existence 
sought  for. 

Nor  yet  again,  is  voice  given  here  to  any  of  those  mystic  cults, 
or  fads,  in  Parsee  guise,  or  Hindfi,  which  like  parasitic  plants 
take  root  suddenly  in  the  fecund  soil  of  America,  but  soon  wither 
in  the  sunshine  of  our  common  sense.  Salvation  through  science, 
indeed,  is  the  fruit  of  that  American  common  sense. 

Salvation  by  science  contemplates  the  prolongation  of  human 
life  from  a  later,  different  view-point,  namely,  that  such  prolonged 
life  is  coming  as  a  result  of  the  increase  of  scientific  knowledge 
in  every  field;  coming  from  increased  capacity  to  live,  and  enjoy 
life;  coming  naturally  to  us  from  the  progressive  development  of 
mind  and  the  growth  of  the  human  brain;  coming  as  the  grand 
complement  of  human  evolution ;  coming  indubitably,  in  time,  but 
always  with  this  proviso,  that  if  any  considerable  number  of  our 
fellow  men  would  join  in  the  effort,  earnestly,  with  faith  in  it, 
consecrating  their  inventive  powers  and  wealth  to  the  task,  we 
might  achieve  this  great  boon  and  promise  of  life  within  a  few 
years,  by  means  of  discoveries  to  be  mentioned  hereafter. 

Greatly  prolonged  life  signifies  a  greater  life  every  way,  a 
broader  life,  a  loftier  life,  with  larger  interests,  higher  joys.  In 
the  natural  order  and  sequence  of  things  such  a  life  would  be 
longer  of  itself;  happier  life  signifies  longer  life  and  vice  versa. 

The  lower  orders  of  animals,  many  of  them,  live  brief  lifetimes 
because  their  lives  are  circumscribed,  their  minds  feeble,  their 
brains  small,  their  mental  fruition  confined  to  mere  sensory 
pleasures.     In  physical  terms  the  radius  of  such  a  life  about  the 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  43 

axis  of  its  self-consciousness  is  short,  its  self -determining  energy 
weak.  It  does  not  reach  out  far  into  the  world  about  it,  and  hence 
the  world  about  it  does  not  react  strongly  on  it,  to  drive  it  for- 
ward for  any  great  length  of  time. 

Always  it  must  be  kept  in  view  that  this  longer,  happier  life 
implies  mental  rectification  and  the  elimination  of  evil  propensities; 
in  a  word,  the  life  of  an  immortal  instead  of  the  present  life  of 
man  —  man  so  lately  erected  and  arisen  from  bestial  orders. 

Always  to  be  kept  in  view,  too,  a  full  realization  of  the  fact 
that  to  confer  the  gift  of  deathless  life  on  the  beast-man  would 
be  an  endowment  without  meaning,  a  calamity.  Such  an  endow- 
ment, however,  could  not  be  made.  The  beast  life  cannot,  in  the 
natural  order  of  things,  be  thus  endowed,  since  it  is  a  lower  order 
of  life,  around  an  axis  of  self -consciousness  which  lacks  the 
power  of  self-maintenance  and  completes  its  cycle  within  a  brief 
lifetime. 

Life,  indeed,  as  thousands  of  our  fellow  men  live  it,  is  not  really 
worth  living,  they  live  so  badly,  so  foolishly,  so  futilely,  so  with- 
out aim  or  ennobling  purpose;  the  kind  of  life  that  natiu-ally  and 
properly  ends  in  disgust  with  life,  that  brings  death  of  itself. 

Naturally  enough,  therefore,  we  constantly  hear  it  said,  that 
"  life  is  not  worth  living."  Milhons  of  our  fellow  beings  say  that; 
and  they  are  quite  right;  it  is  not  —  their  kind  of  hfe.  When 
told  they  may  prolong  their  lives  to  a  hundred  years,  by  careful 
regimen  and  a  change  of  habits,  they  scoff  and  exclaim  that  it 
isn't  worth  it;  that  they  would  not  give  up  their  habits  of  sensory 
gratification,  to  five  twice  a  hundred  years !  that  sixty  years, 
indeed,  is  too  much ;  and  what  they  say  is  quite  true  —  for  them. 

None  the  less,  there  is  a  different  kind  of  hfe  which  is  thor- 
oughly enjoyable  and  worth  living  as  long  as  possible.  Of  biolog- 
ical research  and  progress  in  discovery  of  the  truths  of  nature,  the 
writer  can  say  in  all  sincerity,  that  these  pursuits  render  life  a 
constant  joy,  and  it  is  a  joy  which  is  cumulative  as  years  pass.  As 
long  as  the  universe  holds  new  truth  to  discover,  no  one  need 
or  will  normally  tire  of  life;  —  and  the  universe  is  boundless  and 
eternity  is  long. 

The  oft-raised  question  of  excess  of  population,  if  death  did 
not  rid  the  earth  of  fifty  millions  of  humanity  per  annum,  is  one 


44  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

of  the  problems  which  solve  themselves  and  need  give  us  no  con- 
cern. Procreation  ceases  naturally  with  the  apotheosis  of  life;  nor 
can  there  be  the  least  doubt  that  in  the  economy  of  nature  and  of 
the  universe,  a  wiser,  diviner  generation  of  human  beings,  living 
free  from  disease  and  death,  is  better  than  a  succession  of  thirty- 
year  generations  of  diseased,  suffering,  ignorant  humanity  as  w^e 
at  present  know  it. 

Such  a  generation,  indeed,  can  be  fully  trusted  to  take  care  of 
this  and  similar  problems.  That  greater  wisdom,  which  comes 
from  longer  life  and  the  growth  of  scientific  knowledge,  can  al- 
ways be  relied  on,  implicitly,  to  determine  and  regulate  all  such 
problems  for  the  future.  To  raise  them  now  as  insuperable  obsta- 
cles to  the  achievement  of  immortal  life  on  earth,  is  as  foolish 
and  inconsecjuential  as  is  worrying  over  the  future  coal  supply, 
W'hen  the  sun  is  continuously  lavishing  two  hundred  trillions  of 
horse-powers  on  the  eartli's  surface,  which  only  wait  being  har- 
nessed for  human  service!  Imperfect  solar  engines,  in  fact,  are 
already  in  use.  Yet  there  is  always  the  small  philosopher  to  whose 
wits  the  problem  of  utilizing  solar  heat  and  light  looks  to  be  im- 
possible, and  who  has  his  annual  spasm  of  alarm  over  the  coal 
supply. 

With  perfect  confidence  w^e  may  believe  that  the  generation 
which  follows  us  will  know  more  than  we  do ;  for  the  greater 
communal  life  of  man  into  which  we  are  now  entering  implies 
steady  grow^th  and  conservation  of  scientific  knowledge. 


IMMORTAL   LIFE 

HOW   IT   WILL   BE   ACHIEVED 

PART    I 

IMMORTAL  LIFE  THE  FONDEST  ASPIRATION  OF 

MANKIND 

Immortal  life,  life  saved  from  disease,  pain  and  death,  has  been 
tJie  dream  of  the  ages.  Despite  all  anguish  and  hardship  of  the 
terrestrial  habitat,  in  the  past,  this  wonderful  vision  of  deathless 
life  somewhere  ahead,  has  been  the  cheering  ideal  of  dying  man. 
None  of  the  great  religions  of  mankind  has  been  without  it  as  a 
comer-stone;  none  could  exist  or  prevail  without  giving  earnest 
to  this  aspiration,  this  inherent  desire  for  longer,  beatified  life, 
usually  associated  with  ideas  of  regeneration,  resurrection  of  the 
organism,  purification  from  sin,  and  salvation  by  ritual  or  sacri- 
ficial efltorts. 

The  life  of  the  race,  the  destinies  of  the  world,  indeed,  have 
been  largely  shaped  by  this  hope  of  immortality.  The  Hebrew 
lived  and  sought  his  promised  land  in  the  expectation  of  a  Re- 
deemer and  a  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  with  immortal  life  and 
the  resurrection  of  the  patriarchs.  Early  Christianity  prevailed 
throughout  the  Roman  world  wholly  by  reason  of  faith  that 
through  Jesus  every  believer  would  become  immortal.  Changed 
as  the  Qiristian  religion  afterwards  became,  there  is  now  no  longer 
a  doubt  as  to  the  literal  character  of  the  original  belief,  the  doc- 
trine of  Jesus,  hims.elf.  Early  Christianity  was  a  rapt  commune, 
buoyed  by  full  faith  in  immortal  life  in  restored  bodies.  It  was  in 
fact  the  renaissance  of  the  Hebrew  Hope.  Similar  of  purpose  was 
the  religion  of  Mohammed. 

In  the  light  of  twentieth-century  knowledge,  how  do  we  stand 
toward  this  great  hope  of  humanity?     The  religions  of  the  past 

45 


46  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

have  but  aided  and  accentuated  the  aspiration.  In  America,  with 
the  greater  intellectual  growth  of  the  race,  the  creeds  which  are 
our  heritage  from  the  Orient,  are  in  process  of  flux,  to  separate 
truth  from  error,  the  gold  from  the  dross,  and  build  a  better, 
grander  faith. 

What  will  that  faith  be? 

Of  one  thing  we  may  be  sure.  It  will  include  immortal  life. 
That  fond  hope  will  not  be  given  up :  that  aspiration  will  be  real- 
ized. 

But  by  what  means,  or  agencies? 

We  now  answer,  unhesitatingly,  from  the  growth  of  knowledge, 
from  the  scientific  regeneration  of  the  human  organism  and  from 
the  improvement  of  the  human  theater  of  life.  We  are  to  save 
our  "  souls,"  and  realize  the  long-cherished  ideal  of  "  heaven  "  on 
earth.  Salvation  —  word  dear  to  the  human  heart  —  will  come 
from  applied  science,  and  the  progressive  amelioration  of  all  the 
conditions  of  life. 

But  death,  many  still  argue,  is  a  part  of  the  plan  of  nature. 
Death  is  intimately  implied  in  an  animal  organism,  foretold  from 
its  inception  in  the  tgg.  All  terrestrial  organisms  grow  to  type 
limits,  fructify  in  seed  or  tgg,  shrink  to  a  dry  juicelessness  and 
die.  It  is  the  best  Life  can  do  on  a  globe  of  matter  like  this  earth. 
Such,  at  least,  is  a  common  view. 

But  we  hope  to  put  the  matter  in  a  different  light.  We  expect 
to  revise  these  conclusions,  and  show  that  greatly  prolonged  life  is 
possible  on  the  earth.  Further,  that  it  is  nature's  plan  from  the 
outset. 

But  within  what  lapse  of  time?  Is  it  a  far-off  event?  Can  it 
be  of  interest  to  us,  personally,  of  the  present  generation?  How 
shall  we  make  it  our  aim,  our  object  of  labor,  our  religion? 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  answer  these  questions  and  to 
point  out  what  we  have  to  do  and  do  first. 

This  may  be  misunderstood.  It  may  be  objected  that  a  scheme 
of  immortal  life  as  an  achievement,  is  contrary  to  the  religious 
doctrine  of  disembodied  spirit  life  after  the  death  of  the  organism; 
that  it  is  subversive  of  it,  and  would  appear  as  aiming  to  supplant  it. 

Be  it  said  here,  however,  that  the  doctrine  of  disembodied  spirit 
life  is  not  considered  or  discussed  in  this  work.  Nor  is  it  the 
purpose  to  treat  of  it,  otherwise  than  incidentally  or  inferentially. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  47 

This  effort  confines  itself  to  what  can  be  accompHshed  with  human 
Hfe  on  the  earth.  That  there  are  laws  of  life  operative  in  the 
universe,  of  which  we  know  little  or  nothing  as  yet,  is  conceded; 
but  we  do  not  believe  the  data  now  in  our  possession  sufficient  for 
a  profitable  discussion  of  so  transcendent  an  inquiry. 

This  line  of  research  therefore  should  not  be  deemed  in  designed 
hostility  to,  or  intended  conflict  with  the  Christian  creed,  nor  with 
the  Hebrew  faith,  nor  yet  with  that  of  spiritists ;  nor  with  the  aims 
and  purposes  of  societies  for  Psychical  Research;  since  even  the 
most  confident  spiritist  must  agree  with  me.  I  think,  in  confessing 
that  from  all  which  has  thus  far  transpired  as  to  the  mental  con- 
dition of  disembodied  spirits,  no  one  would  wish  to  become  one 
as  long  as  he  could  retain  possession  of  a  healthy  physical  body. 

With  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Christian  Scientists,  too, 
the  effort  to  win  deathless  life  must  be  largely  in  consonance. 
The  author  is  led  to  make  this  statement  at  the  outset,  in  the  in- 
terest of  harmony  and  cordial  co-operation,  that  nothing  may  stand 
in  the  way  of  united  action  along  what  he  believes  to  be  so  grand 
a  line  of  human  endeavor. 

The  great  lesson  from  human  history,  the  inference  from  the 
entire  life  of  our  race,  is  that  we  succeed  best  when  we  make 
earnest  effort  to  help  ourselves;  that  "faith"  without  "works" 
is  inefficient  and  largely  inoperative;  that  Nature  helps  those  most 
signally  who  help  themselves  vigorously. 


IMMORTAL  LIFE  ALREADY  INITIATED  IN  MAN 

To  many,  to  most  persons,  the  argument  that  we  may  attain 
salvation  from  disease,  old  age  and  death  by  the  growth  of  knowl- 
edge, and  win  immortal  life,  will  appear  visionary,  in  toto,  with, 
perchance,  an  added  flavor  of  hardihood  or  impiety.  So  of  the 
associate  concept,  that  the  earth  may  be  made  the  home  of  death- 
less life,  its  climate  ameliorated,  its  aerial  envelope  modified,  its 
seisiTiic  phenomena  regulated. 

It  may  be  a  novel  assertion,  too.  that  we  are  already  well  ad- 
vanced toward  this  great  achievement  for  which  the  ages  have 
labored,  and  the  many  Christs  of  men  have  lived  and  suffered. 


48  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Novel  and  visionary.  Yet  in  the  larger  light,  from  the  wider 
view-point,  that  is  what,  in  reality,  the  remarkable  progress  of 
mankind  signifies,  since  the  dawn  of  history,  and  long  before. 
There  has  been  phenomenal  development  of  mind,  accompanied  by 
equally  phenomenal  development  of  brain. 

It  matters  not  that  the  fast-passing  generations  of  men  have 
been  little  aware  of  this,  or  that,  misled  by  erroneous  cults,  they 
have  believed  otherwise  and  cherished  other  hopes.  This  secular 
progress  toward  the  winning  of  immortality  has  gone  on,  quite 
the  same.     In  a  sense  it  has  been  the  religion  of  the  cell-of-life. 

Ever  since  the  days  of  our  rough,  hirsute,  and  brutish  ancestors, 
coarse  in  flesh  and  bone,  savage  in  mind,  a  progress  in  physical 
refinement  has  been  going  on,  the  evolution  of  a  finer  type,  which 
may  not  inappropriately  be  termed  a  spiritualization  of  the  genus 
homo.  It  has  come  along  the  line  of  growing  knowledge,  react- 
ing on  the  organism  in  a  thousand  ways :  improved  nutrition  from 
better  food,  better  housing,  better  care  of  the  body,  but  most  of  all 
from  larger  thought  and  better  mentation.  Although  still  at  the 
beginning  of  this  progress  toward  spiritualization  of  the  type,  the 
human  being  of  to-day  is  little  like  the  bone  cave  man  of  twenty 
thousand  years  ago,  and  possesses  an  organism  greatly  ennobled 
every  way,  despite  the  diseases  and  weaknesses  incidental  to  an  as 
yet  imperfect  civilization. 

That  is  to  say,  progress  enough  has  been  made  to  show  us  the 
trend,  outlook  and  purpose  of  it.  Nothing  less,  in  fact,  than  a 
secular  movement  toward  a  transformation  of  the  organism,  the 
most  notable  feature  of  which  is  longer  life. 

Ever  since  what  we  term  civilization  first  took  root  in  the 
sodden  mould  of  human  savagery,  ever  since  co-operation  began, 
man  with  man,  tribe  with  tribe,  nation  with  nation,  ever  since 
knowledge  tended  to  accumulate  and  be  conserved  in  records,  how- 
ever rude,  from  one  generation  to  another,  there  has  been  a  prog- 
ress, whether  comprehended  or  not,  toward  this  great  end. 

From  co-operati(jn  and  mutual  effort  to  ensure  safety,  from  the 
use  of  fire,  from  better  food,  from  protective  clothing,  from 
clearer  ideas,  loftier  ideals,  higher  ambitions  and  purer  morals  — 
all  combining  —  the  brief  lifetime  of  our  far-back  ancestors,  a 
lifetime  not  exceeding  from  seventeen  to  twenty  years,  has 
mounted  steadily  upward  to  eighty  and  a  hundred. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  49 

What  is  it  all  but  a  progression  toward  deathless  life?  —  What 
else,  when  we  consider  that  energy  is  undying,  and  that  the  cell- 
of-life,  of  which  every  animal  organism  is  an  organized  union,  is 
already  demonstrated  to  be  a  potentially  deathless  unit.  A  cell 
dies  from  obstruction  and  interference  with  its  life,  not  from  any 
self-limiting  law  of  that  life.  Unobstructed,  its  life  is  continuous. 
It  dies  because  it  is  thwarted,  starved,  poisoned,  killed  out  by  its 
environment  in  a  befouled  organism  which  is  mortal  as  yet  owing 
to  imperfect  modes  of  living. 

What  we  still  term  matter,  that  embodiment  of  energy,  offers 
no  limit  to  immortal  life  in  the  cell.  Its  initial,  sentient  potence  is 
indestructible.  Immortal  life  means  embodying  it  in  an  organism, 
chemically  clean  and  pure,  that  is  to  say  in  sentient  harmony,  and 
in  renewing  that  organism  by  an  unvitiated  influx  from  the  eternal 
source  without.  Such  improved  nutrition  of  the  cell  we  must 
attain.  From  times  most  ancient,  indeed,  there  have  been  visions 
concerning  ambrosia,  broma,  nectar  and  elixirs  vitae,  i.  e.  immor- 
tality-producing foods  and  drinks,  presaging  magic  changes  which 
should  lift  the  incubus  of  death  and  exalt  mortals  to  the  estate  of 
the  gods. 

Science,  the  mission  of  which  is  to  realize  many  of  these  long- 
descended  ideals  and  aspirations  of  man,  has  now  to  produce 
actual  ambrosias  and  nectars,  cell  foods  which  by  direct  nutrition 
of  the  protoplasmic  molecule,,  will  spiritualize  the  gross,  mortal 
organisms  of  men,  and  aid  us  to  pass  from  death  unto  life.  It  is 
the  brain  of  man,  the  brain,  par  excellence,  which  has  made  this 
progress  toward  prolonged  life,  since  the  brain  is  the  physical  co- 
relative  and  record  of  the  growth  of  knowledge.  It  is  brain,  in- 
deed, which  has  ennobled  the  human  organism. 


BRAIN  A  STEADILY  PROGRESSIVE  ORGAN  OF 
THE  BODY 

Whether  a  higher  type  of  life  would  eventually  develop  from 
humanity,  whether,  indeed,  the  human  organism  is  capable  of 
being  greatly  improved,  was  one  of  those  questions  which  early 
suggested  themselves  to  biologists  of  the  Darwin  era. 

The  argument  and  the  inference  from  evolution  was.  in  a  word. 


50  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

that  man  as  found  on  the  earth  is  the  long-descended  heir  of  the 
developmental  eflort,  —  the  efifoit  of  living  matter  in  the  cell  mode 
of  existence  to  improve  its  condition  and  rise  to  the  highest  pos- 
sible degree  of  intelligence  and  happiness.  On  a  priori  grounds, 
there  would  seem  to  be  no  good  reason  to  infer  that  a  struggle 
extending  through  millions  of  years,  and  involving  so  much  of 
individual  effort  and  sacrifice,  may  not  eventuate  in  a  correspond- 
ingly grand  future  achievement.  Evolution,  in  fact,  naturally 
ushers  in  a  moral  and  a  creed  concerning  man's  past  and  his 
future. 

As  to  the  further  progress  of  the  human  organism,  however, 
there  were  many  indications  which  appeared  to  controvert  the 
affirmative  view.  Not  a  few  of  those  best  equipped  for  forming 
an  opinion  on  this  subject,  held  negative  views,  to  wit,  that  the 
human  organism  has  long  ago  reached  its  type  limits,  limits  which 
under  the  most  favorable  conditions  it  could  not  escape;  in  short, 
that  the  human  type,  anatomically  and  physiologically,  is  now 
"  fixed ;  "  that  improved  conditions  will  but  cause  it  to  vary  within 
certain  unsurpassable  bounds ;  that  man  will  remain  a  man  hence- 
forward, under  whatever  stress  of  evolution,  continued  even  for 
many  thousands  of  years,  or  forever. 

\\'hen  we  examine  the  subject  historically,  there  is  much  to 
confirm  the  above  view.  Apparently  the  human  organism  was  as 
perfect  four  thousand  years  ago  as  at  present,  and  differed  in  no 
external  features  or  essentials.  There  seems  to  have  been  no 
change  to  indicate  physical  evolution  within  the  historic  period. 

From  a  histological  point  of  view,  too,  there  is  little  to  indicate 
even  the  most  slowly-progressive  development  in  most  of  the 
tissues  of  the  body;  for  example,  the  osseous,  muscular,  con- 
nective, cartilaginous,  and  epithelial  tissues.  The  cells  of  these 
tissues  pass  through  a  well-defined  cycle  of  growth,  and  give  rise 
to  a  series  of  growth  products  which  vary,  indeed,  from  youth  to 
age,  but  show  little  visible  change  from  generation  to  generation. 

Moreover,  the  bone,  muscle,  cartilage,  and  other  tissue  cells 
of  man  resemble  very  closely  those  of  the  lower  mammals,  the 
types  of  which  are  even  more  clearly  seen  to  be  permanent  and 
unprogressive. 

Cataclysmic  changes  of  the  earth's  surface,  giving  rise  to  new 
geologic,    climatic,    and    atmospheric    conditions,    might,    indeed,. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  5 1 

if  not  too  suddenly  destructive,  compel  certain  skeletal  altera- 
tions and  changes  of  form,  both  in  man  and  other  mammals, 
although  tliere  is  the  greater  probability  that  such  catastrophism 
would  prove  fatal  to  all  well-established  types  of  life;  in  brief, 
that  the  genus  homo,  or  the  genus  bos,  would  perish  off  the  earth 
sooner  than  develop  into  anything  else. 

There  is  little  likelihood,  however,  that  further  evolution  will 
be  fostered  by  such  means,  the  earth  itself  having  reached  an 
age  and  a  permanence  of  planetary  type,  so  to  speak,  when  surface 
mutations  of  such  revolutionary  character  are  not  to  be  looked  for. 
The  very  permanence  of  his  terrestrial  habitat,  in  fact,  is  against 
tlie  further  evolution  of  the  human  organism,  or  the  development 
of  anything  superior  in  the  way  of  organic  apparatus  from  such 
causes. 

The  widest  view  of  this  subject  of  organism  and  evolution 
which  we  can  take,  is  so  conclusive  to  this  effect  that  the  theory 
of  a  higher  type  of  being  than  man,  hereafter  to  come  from  terres- 
trial evolution,  was  practically  abandoned,  even  although  it  is 
apparent  and  can  be  shown  on  good  evidence  that  man  in  his  mind, 
his  intellect,  is  still  progressive  and  manifestly  capable  of  much 
future  progress. 

The  general  conclusion  obtained  that  evolution  in  the  ordinary 
sense  has  terminated  in  man,  and  that  he  is  not  only  the  latest 
but  in  all  probability  the  last  of  the  mammalia.  A  great  deal  in 
human  creed,  mythic,  classic,  and  Christian,  has  originated  here, 
namely,  on  tlie  hopelessness  of  doing  much  better  on  the  earth. 
The  apparent  cessation  of  evolution  has  long  been  felt  to  be  dis- 
heartening; literature  is  burdened  with  it  and  aspiration  concern- 
ing some  other  better  state  of  existence  has  grown  out  of  it. 

But  has  evolution  ceased?  The  question,  which  the  anatomist 
and  biologist  have  been  not  a  little  inclined  to  answer  in  the 
affirmative,  is  exceedingly  important  to  the  morale  of  humanity. 
Has  the  anatomist,  the  biologist  or  the  physiologist  overlooked 
any  point,  any  particular,  or  any  capacity  by  virtue  of  which  man 
may  still  demonstrate  himself  progressive  and  take  heart  for  him- 
self and  his  race? 

It  is  the  purpose  here  to  call  attention  to  one  important  tissue 
of  the  human  organism  which  can  be  shown  to  have  been  steadily 
progressive,  and  which  gives  no  evidence  of  reaching,  or  of  tend- 


52  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

ing  to  reach,  type  limits.  It  will  be  shown  that  it  is  by  virtue  of 
the  steady  growth  and  development  of  this  part  of  the  body  that 
man  has  so  prodigiously  surpassed  all  other  species  of  mammals, 
made  them  subject  to  him,  and  overrun  and  dominated  the  whole 
earth.  In  the  physical  sense,  the  evolution  of  this  tissue  has  been, 
strangely  overlooked  by  many,  in  fact  by  most,  biologists,  or,  if 
touched  upon,  has  not  been  held  to  determine  the  question  of  man's 
true  position  as  a  progressive  mammal,  compared  with  other  spe- 
cies which  are  either  unprogressive  or  retrogressive.  For  while  all 
have  abundantly  recognized  man's  mental  superiority  to  the  lower 
animals,  and  connected  it  vaguely  with  his  larger  brain,  this  superi- 
ority of  intellect  has  been  attributed  to  a  certain  adventitious  en- 
dowment of  the  nature  of  '*  soul,"  not  a  natural  part  of  the 
organism,  but  an  implantation  from  an  extraneous  source.  Nor 
have  biologists  clearly  pointed  out  as  yet  the  relative  truth  of  the 
matter  in  connection  with  man's  rise  from  brute  life  to  the  estate 
of  a  world-dominant  being. 

The  human  organism,  from  the  latest  standpoint  of  science, 
is  a  compact,  federal  union  of  thirty  or  more  differentiations  of 
cell  life.  Every  one  of  the  thousands  and  millions  of  cells  of 
which  each  tissue  is  composed,  is  a  more  or  less  independent 
creature,  possessing  to  some  considerable  extent  individuality  and 
self-direction.  They  are  banded  together,  however,  indissolubly, 
and  in  certain  situations  are  in  protoplasmic  contact  by  means  of 
living  filaments,  so  sentiently  that  all  live  and  feel  as  one. 

These  orders  of  cell  life,  thus  confederated,  have,  in  the  prog- 
ress of  organic  development  in  the  past,  become  mutually  depend- 
ent and  interdependent  one  upon  another  until  one  order  cannot 
live  long  without  the  presence  and  functions  of  the  others.  Such 
are  the  bone  cells,  the  muscle  cells,  the  connective  tissue  cells,  the 
hepatic,  pulmonic,  splenic,  intestinal,  spermatic,  epithelial,  capillary 
and  glandular  cells;  an  extensive  congeries  of  diverse  tissues,  each 
containing  millions  of  individuals  and  all  mutually  dependent  on 
the  general  well-being  and  safety  of  the  organism. 

So  far  as  can  be  judged  by  a  comparison  of  man  to-day  with 
man  in  earliest  historic  times  and  man  with  the  lower  unprogress- 
ive mammals,  all  these  above-mentioned  cells,  or  differentiations 
of  cells,  do  not  of  themselves  tend  to  be  progressive.  For  the  good 
reason  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  terrestrial  environment   which 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  53 

now  calls  for  a  re-adaptation;  nor  has  there  been  for  thousands 
of  years. 

There  is,  however,  a  tissue  of  the  organism,  an  order,  or  differ- 
entiation of  cells,  which  we  have  not  yet  named,  namely,  the 
nerve  and  brain  order.  In  brain  and  nerve  we  contemplate  a 
colony,  or  order  of  cells,  incorporated  within  the  organism,  living 
at  the  expense  of  the  other  orders,  devoted  to  the  accjuisition  of 
knowledge:  a  function  diverse  from  all  others,  nobler  than  all 
others.  In  a  sense,  it  is  as  if  this  brain  order  were  a  superior  order 
which  had  entered  the  multicellular  organism  and  lived  on  it.  but 
repaid  for  its  protected  situation  and  its  refined  food  by  doing  the 
thinking,  planning,  and  caring  for  its  host.  So  greatly  has  the 
function  of  acquiring  knowledge  ennobled  the  brain  group  of  cells, 
raising  it  to  such  divine  eminence  over  all  others,  that  in  man  it 
has  come  to  stand  for  the  personality  of  the  organism,  the  self,  the 
ego,  the  soul  of  the  human  body. 

Nerve  and  brain  are  not  found  in  unicellular  life;  at  least,  not 
in  the  organic  sense  of  these  terms. 

From  as  close  a  study  as  can  be  made  of  certain  simple  forms  of 
multicellular  creatures,  which  are  doubtless  quite  similar  to  those 
from  which  the  higher  multicellular  forms  were  originally  devel- 
oped, the  first  rudimentary  attempt  to  establish  a  nervous  system 
consisted  of  a  living  protoplasmic  thread,  thrust  out  from  one  cell 
to  another.  At  first  this  would  appear  to  have  been  a  mere 
"  feeler,'*  but  in  time  it  came  to  remain  constantly  extended,  no 
longer  as  a  transient  feeler,  but  as  a  permanent  means  of  sensory 
intercommunication  between  cell  and  cell. 

But,  as  multicellular  creatures  waxed  larger,  and  differentia- 
tion of  the  component  cell  orders  began,  simple  filaments  of  pro- 
toplasm, modified  pseudopodia,  were  no  longer  sufficient  for  trans- 
mitting sensation  from  tract  to  tract;  whole  rows  or  lines  of  cells 
were  involved  in  the  strong  currents  of  sensation  that  passed  to 
and  fro,  and,  in  time,  these  cells  became  devoted  wholly  to  the 
business  of  receiving,  interpreting,  and  transmitting  the  aggre- 
gated sensations  of  all  the  millions  of  individual  cells  of  which  an 
animal  organism  is  composed. 

I  need  not  here  review  the  evidences  and  the  argument  by  which 
it  is  now  shown  that  sensory  ganglia  for  perception  and  reflex 
perception  grew  up  at  the  intersection  of  the  primary  nerve  fila- 


54  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

ments ;  how  the  special  sense  organs  took  form ;  how  at  length  the 
cerebellum  came  to  be  lodged  in  the  forward  end  of  the  multicellu- 
lar animal,  and  how  the  ever-increasing  need  of  g-reater  capacity 
for  the  sensory  business  of  a  world-roaming  organism  led  to  that 
enormous  super-addition  to  the  cerebellum,  known  as  the  cerebrum. 

\Vhat  is  designed  here  to  point  out  is  the  fact  that  the  nervous 
system  of  the  human  organism,  particularly  the  cerebral  portion 
of  it,  or,  in  other  words,  the  tissue  of  mind  and  intellect,  has 
always  been  in  the  past  and  is  to-day  a  progressive  tissue.  It 
came  into  existence,  as  brain,  in  response  to  a  necessity  on  the  part 
of  the  organism  for  greater  protoplasmic  capacity,  for  the  recep- 
tion and  utilization  of  intelligence.  That  necessity  and  that  stim- 
ulus still  exist  and  grow  constantly  more  urgent. 

Bone  and  muscle  cells  have  developed  to  the  extent  of  the  neces- 
sity which  led  to  their  differentiation ;  the  incentives  to  locomotion 
and  organic  support  remain  the  same ;  hence,  bone  and  muscle  cells 
long  ago  reached  the  acme  of  their  development.  The  same  is 
true,  or  true  in  large  part,  of  every  other  tissue  of  the  body,  save 
the  encephalon.  The  brain  is  still  forced  to  develop  and  grow 
larger  in  response  to  constantly  changing  conditions  incident  to  the 
world's  growth  in  knowledge.  Certain  tribes,  races  and  peoples, 
it  is  true,  adhere  to  habits  and  modes  of  life  largely  unprogressive, 
and,  as  a  result,  show  little  brain  change  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. It  is  not  so,  however,  with  the  westward-moving  peoples 
of  the  dominant  races,  —  the  nations  who  think  and  invent. 
Science  is  the  agent  of  brain  growth.  To  think,  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word,  signifies  brain  development.  New  inventions 
stand  for  cerebral  evolution.  The  changed  sensory  experiences, 
too,  which  result  from  new  inventions,  tend  to  alter  the  protoplas- 
mic status  of  the  brain,  and  add  to  its  capacity  for  growth.  In 
America,  to-day,  we  see  heads  of  varying  sizes  and  shapes,  not 
only  the  types  emigrant  from  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  but  types 
and  sizes  unknown  before  in  any  country.  There  is  actual  brain 
growth  among  us.     A  new  variety  of  intellect  is  being  developed. 

A  comparison  of  the  earliest  human  skulls,  found  in  ancient 
caves,  tombs,  and  mounds,  with  those  of  individuals  of  the  present 
age,  shows  that  on  the  whole  there  has  been  growth  of  brain  as 
well  as  a  perceptible  alteration  in  shape,  in  favor  of  greater  intel- 
lectuality.    Brain  has  grown  greatly  in  size  and  improved  in  form 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  55 

during  the  last  eight  or  ten  thousand  years;  —  a  period  of  time 
relatively  brief  when  considered  in  comparison  with  the  develop- 
mental epoch  of  mammals. 

Prehistoric  skulls  are  smaller  and  less  prominently  developed, 
fron tally,  than  those  of  our  own  people.  The  same  general  truth 
is  exemplified  when  the  skulls  of  existent  savage  tribes  are  com- 
pared with  those  of  individuals  from  the  highly  civilized  and  pro- 
gressive nations ;  there  is  less  of  that  higher  frontal  development  in 
savages,  which  we  find  associated  with  the  growth  of  intellect,  and 
this  even  in  instances  of  large  individuals,  where  the  skull  is  very 
massive  and  capacious.  Acquired  knowledge  and  the  sciences  tend 
constantly,  if  slowly,  to  increase  the  bulk  of  the  brain  and  modify 
its  form ;  in  a  word,  to  render  it  a  progressive  tissue. 

This  proposition  is  still  more  grandly  exemplified  when  the 
evolution  of  life  on  the  earth  is  contemplated  as  a  whole.  In 
early  metazoic  life,  brain  was  scarcely  more  than  initiated.  The 
lower  vertebrates  have  small  brains.  But  in  the  quadrumana  the 
human  brain  is  found  to  be  outlined  in  type  and  form.  From  this 
order  of  mammals  the  progress  of  the  human  brain  can  be  readily 
traced. 

Nor  can  it  be  doubted,  even  although  our  microscopes  fail  to 
show  the  fact,  that  the  brain  tissue  is  receiving  a  progressive  in- 
ternal dez'elopment,  corresponding  to  the  intellectual  growth  of 
humanity. 

For  the  human  brain  to-day  is  the  protoplasmic  co-relative,  the 
material  counterpart  of  the  entirety  of  human  knowledge;  and  in 
future,  as  science  increases  its  range  and  its  acquisitions,  there  can- 
not fail  to  be  greater  and  greater  stimulus  to  brain  growth  and  in- 
creased cerebral  capacity. 

It  may  not  be  wholly  irrelevant  here  to  allude  to  certain  recent 
attempts  in  the  province  of  surgery  to  open  the  sutures  of  the 
skull  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  brain  greater  room  therein. 
These  first  rude  efforts  may  be  prophetic  of  measures  which  will 
be  resorted  to  as  time  goes  on  to  facilitate  cerebral  development, 
since  it  is  already  known  to  many  specialists  in  brain  disorders 
that  congenital  lack  of  room  for  the  brain  inside  the  skull  is  a 
serious  incident  in  the  lives  of  many  persons,  particularly  where 
for  several  generations  there  has  been  a  tendency  to  intellectual 
pursuits. 


56  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

So  sure^  as  there  are  new  things  to  learn  in  the  great  universe 
around  us,  just  so  surely  will  the  brain  of  man  go  on  growing  and 
developing  greater  capacity  for  the  reception  of  knowledge.  It  is 
in  this  respect  and  in  this  tissue  that  man  has  not  reached  the  acme 
of  his  powers,  and  that  evolution  has  not  ceased. 

And  this  aspect  of  his  future  brings  us  more  clearly  to  a  con- 
templation of  his  anomalous  position  on  the  earth  to-day.  From 
some  reason  —  either  a  hint  dropped  in  his  earlier  ear  by  beings 
from  some  outer  orb  of  space,  or,  as  is  most  probable,  in  the  nat- 
ural order  of  his  terrestrial  development  —  man  left  the  rank  of 
his  brutal  mammalian  congeners  and  began  to  use  his  brain.  As 
a  result,  his  brain  grew  and  has  entered  upon  an  era  of  develop- 
ment the  limits  of  which  no  one  can  foresee.  In  consequence  we 
find  this  tissue  to  be  still  progressive,  but  associated  in  the  organ- 
ism with  other  less  progressive  tissues  which  tend  but  to  pass 
through  a  fixed  cycle  of  growth  and  decline.  It  is  this  condition 
which  affords  the  key-note  and  the  explanation  to  his  strange 
creeds,  aspirations,  superstitions,  hopes,  and  fears;  his  optimisms 
and  his  pessimisms ;  his  gods,  his  christs,  and  his  satans. 

And  this  is  that  riddle  of  the  Sphinx,  that  fateful  interrogation 
of  the  Ages  which  he  has  to  answer :  Will  the  progressive,  still 
developing  brain  acquire  such  knowledge  and  obtain  such  mastery 
and  such  control  over  the  forces  of  nature  as  to  '*  redeem," 
regenerate,  and  renew  at  will  the  other  tissues  with  which  brain  is 
yoked  in  the  organism,  and  which  at  present  condemn  it  to  a  brief 
lifetime  with  them?  Can  the  progressive  tissue  redeem  and  save 
the  less  progressive  tissues  ?    We  have  now  good  hopes  that  it  can. 


NATURAL  SALVATION  IN  UNICELLULAR  LIFE 

The  present  development  of  life  on  the  earth  began  in  the 
Cambrian  or  pre-Cambrian  ages;  and  the  presence  of  graphite  in 
the  Laurentian,  or  "  azoic  "  rocks  has  by  some  been  considered 
evidence  that  there  was  a  previous  life  development  which  was 
followed  by  a  period  of  high  temperature. 

But  to  return  to  what  is  known,  keeping  it  separate  from  con- 
jecture, we  find  that  low  forms  of  unicellular  life  —  individual  life 
in  one  cell  —  were  existing  on  the  earth  manv  millions  of  years 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  57 

ago.  Geology  affords  the  evidence  of  this,  though  the  exact  num- 
ber of  milHons  of  years  is  still  debatable.  That  is  not  material  to 
our  purpose,  however;  it  was  a  very  long  time  ago.  Fire,  water, 
and  unicellular  life  have  wrought  together  to  make  the  earth's  sur- 
face what  we  find  it  to-day.  But  geologists  are  agreed  that  there 
was  an  azoic,  or  lifeless,  age,  followed  by  an  epoch  when  proto- 
zoons  —  vegetable  and  animal  cells  of  life,  the  monera,  protamoe- 
bid?e,  diatoms,  alg?e,  myxopods,  rhizopods,  ciliata,  flagellata,  et  al. 
—  had  appeared ;  unicellular  creatures  from  one  ten-thousandth  to 
a  hundredth  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

For  millions,  perhaps  hundreds  of  millions  of  years,  certain  of 
these  protozoons  were  apparently  the  sole  inhabitants  of  the  earth 
which  was  fit  for  no  higher  form  of  life.  Nothing  more  graphi- 
cally illustrates  the  wealth  of  time  at  Nature's  disposal,  or  the  fact 
that  the  course  of  nature  cannot  be  judged  by  human  standards. 
Metazoons,  creatures  of  higher,  more  complex  organization,  were 
to  appear  on  the  earth ;  yet  through  all  these  millions  of  years  no 
sign  or  semblance  of  them  was  visible.  Were  these  millions  of 
years  of  unicellular  life  necessary  to  prepare  the  earth's  surface  for 
metazoons?  The  question  is  idle.  Every  measure  of  our  estima- 
tion of  nature  breaks  down  on  extended  application.  We  have  no 
code  of  morals  for  nature  and  can  have  none,  for  nature  is  eternal, 
and  man  a  being  of  yesterdays  and  to-morrows. 

Then  occurred  a  new  departure  in  terrestrial  life,  an  innovation, 
but  when,  how  early,  or  how  late  in  that  first  long  epoch  of  uni- 
cellular life  we  do  not  know.  Some  time  during  those  millions 
of  the  earth's  unhistoric  revolutions,  an  innovation  on  unicellu- 
lar life  began.  From  accident  of  the  environment,  or  even  per- 
chance from  a  malformation,  two  or  more  cells  began  to  live 
united  together,  and  to  act  in  unison  —  the  earliest  metazoon ! 
Or,  as  some  biologists  conjecture,  an  unusually  tough  cell  wall,  or 
membrane,  may  have  restricted  the  ordinary  course  of  multiplica- 
tion of  cells  by  fission.  The  offspring  or  increase  of  a  certain 
protozoon  may  have  been  unable  to  separate  from  the  parent  cell,  to 
lead  an  individual  life  apart,  as  formerly,  and  thus  two  or  more 
protozoons  may  have  come  to  live  together,  in  sentient,  protoplas- 
mic contact  as  one  life,  and  to  act  for  a  common  interest. 

It  is  not  essential  to  our  argument  to  show  how  metazoons  be- 


58  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

gan.  As  to  this  much  is  in  dispute.  The  point  made  is  that  they 
came  into  existence  and,  beyond  doubt,  originated  from  the  uni- 
cellular life  which  antedated  them.  In  some  way  two  or  more 
cells  contrived  to  merge  their  hitherto  separate  lives  in  one.  Their 
separate  sentiences  were  pooled,  so  to  speak,  in  one  consentient  life. 

This  was  accomplished  by  means  of  close  protoplasmic  contact. 
For  it  is  possible  for  two  cells  to  live  as  one  and  form  a  single  life 
or  self-conscious  existence,  if  there  is  close  protoplasmic  connection 
between  the  two,  that  is  to  say,  if  they  touch  each  other,  or  are 
joined  together  by  one  or  more  threads  of  the  sentient  living  mat- 
ter. When  this  occurs,  the  two  cells  may  have  one  common  life, 
in  place  of  the  two  lives  previous  to  the  union.  One  common  life 
may  take  the  place  of  two;  and  yet  the  two  cell  substances  do  not 
become  confluent  or  coalesce;  they  merely  touch  and  remain 
separate  seats,  or  fountains,  of  sentience;  it  is  the  two  sentiences 
only  which  unite;  as  when  two  springs  which  issue  at  points  near 
together,  combine  their  waters  in  one  rill.  The  two  cell  lives  com- 
bine in  one  stream,  but  the  cells  themselves  remain  distinct,  sep- 
arate founts  of  life.  The  tremendous  significance  of  this  fact  is 
little  recognized  or  understood  as  yet.  It  demonstrates  that  the 
intellect  of  man,  the  human  personality,  is  composite  and  dissol- 
uble. 

At  the  outset,  however,  certain  hasty  conclusions  which  have 
sometimes  misled  investigators  should  be  avoided.  The  bodies 
of  the  higher  animals  are  something  more  than  confederations  of 
unicellular  life ;  that  is  to  say,  they  have  not  come  directly  from  a 
banding  together  of  cells  that  once  lived  separately.  The  animal 
organism  develops  from  a  single  cell  in  the  tgg.  All  the  millions 
of  cells  in  the  various  tissues  issue  forth,  seriatim,  from  this  one 
reproductive  cell,  which  seems  to  contain  representative  particles, 
reproductive  molecules,  or  "  biophors,"  and  "  determinants,"  cor- 
responding to  every  tissue  cell  of  the  parent  organism.  We  have 
by  no  means  sounded  the  depths  of  this  latter  problem,  as  yet. 
One  conjecture  is,  that  the  entire  animal  organism,  in  co-relation 
with  its  generative  tissue,  fructifies  in  a  species  of  sub-unicellular 
life;  a  germ  life  as  far  below  the  tissue  cell  life  in  size  and  bulk 
as  the  cell  is  smaller  than  the  whole  animal  organism.  The  cell 
would  thus  appear  to  extrude  a  species  of  minute  offspring  which 
are  assembled,  as  a  colony,  in  the  ovum. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  59 

Animals  are  grand  communities  of  cells  and  something  more, 
the  result  of  long  organization  and  new  methods  of  cell  life.  But 
this  distinction  does  not  essentially  detract  from  the  importance 
which  attaches  to  the  phenomenon,  disclosed  to  us  when  tzvo  cells 
combine  to  live  one  life.  I  have  termed  this  a  new  departure,  yet 
must  not  be  understood  to  assert  that  it  took  place  suddenly,  as 
being  the  beginning  or  end  of  an  epoch,  or  as  indicating  a  creative 
act. 

Here,  too,  it  will  be  well  to  enlarge  the  common  conception  of 
a  cell.  We  are  apt  to  think  of  unicellular  life  as  being  very  low 
and  simple.  Whereas  the  truth  appears  to  be  that  the  "  cell  "  is  a 
relatively  huge  and  vastly  complex  organism;  and  that  the  uni- 
cellular hfe  of  the  globe  is  an  evolution  of  a  most  hoary  antiquity; 
herewith  also  this  other  fact  should  be  associated  and  kept  in  mind, 
namely,  that  in  the  bodies  of  metazoons,  in  plants  and  trees,  the 
unicellular  type  of  life,  this  ancient  life  of  the  Silurian  ages,  still 
persists.  In  fact,  it  will  hardly  be  too  much  to  say  that  the  unicel- 
lular is  the  only  real,  distinct  type  of  life  which  exists,  or  has  ever 
existed  on  the  earth's  surface,  or  probably  ever  will  exist.  Since 
all  the  metazoons  are  but  more  or  less  well-organized  and  well- 
perfected  confraternities  of  cell  life,  where  the  individual  lives  of 
millions  of  cells  are  unified  in  a  single,  larger  personality. 

Many  of  the  polyzoa  are  suggestive  of  the  manner  in  which 
multicellular  organisms  started.  In  paliidicella  we  find  cells  joined 
together,  as  joints  or  sections  of  the  branches  of  a  minute  tree-like 
growth,  attached  to  stones  in  streams.  It  is  a  tree  in  miniature; 
the  cells  grow  forth,  one  beyond  another,  offspring  above  parent 
cell,  but  otherwise  have  little  connection  one  with  another.  It  is 
simply  an  arboriform  colony,  or  zoarium.  Other  polyzoa,  like 
mucronella,  form  mat-like  disks  on  stones  in  water,  the  cells  lying 
in  contact  merely. 

In  certain  of  the  zoaria  of  polyzoa,  however,  a  considerable 
degree  of  individualization  is  exhibited  with  division  of  labor 
among  the  cells.  In  bristatella  mucedo  the  cells  not  only  adhere, 
but  the  whole  colony  crawls  with  considerable  facility  from  one 
water  weed  to  another.  Kinetoskias  is  another  zoarium  where 
the  colony  has  arrived  at  the  point  of  differentiation  of  function. 
Adeona  presents  an  equally  interesting  example  of  a  simple  colony 
of  imicells. 


60  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Among  the  hydrozoa,  siphonoplwra  affords  an  example  where 
a  floating  colony  of  unicells  has  taken  definite  form  and  organized 
its  individual  cells  to  Avork  for  the  common  good.  In  siphono- 
plwra, as,  indeed,  in  hundreds  of  other  instances,  the  beginnings 
of  multicellular  mind  are  apparent.  That  is  to  say.  there  is  pres- 
ent not  only  the  cell  intelHgence  —  that  which  pertains  to  all  cells 
—  but  that  larger  intelligence  which  comes  into  existence  from  the 
consentience  of  the  entire  colony  —  the  pooling  of  the  separate 
cell  sentiences  in  one  larger  intelligence. 

This  habit  among  protozoons  of  colonizing  —  however  it  orig- 
inated —  may  have  opened  the  way  to  metazoons.  Often  the 
colony  grows  up  around  one  mother  cell,  whose  offspring  instead 
of  dispersing  remain  loosely  attached  together.  Of  such  agglom- 
erations anthrophysa  vegetans  is  a  good  instance. 

In  other  instances  the  envelope,  or  cuticle,  of  the  mother  cell 
expands  and  enlarges,  forming  a  sac  which  contains  the  entire 
colony  for  a  considerable  time,  till  the  reproductive  power  of 
the  parent  cell  is  exhausted  by  imperfect  nutrition.  Eventually  the 
sac  bursts  and  the  group  disperses.  Many  of  the  flagellates  exhibit 
this  phenomenon,  the  parent  organism  continuing  to  move  about 
after  becoming  a  colony  instead  of  a  single  cell. 

In  goniuui  pectorale,  a  volvocine  of  stagnant  fresh  waters,  a 
colony  of  sixteen  offspring  cells  adhere  laterally  to  each  other, 
in  the  form  of  a  minute,  rectangular  plaque  of  a  light  green  color. 
Pandorina,  on  the  other  hand,  gives  birth  to  either  sixteen  or 
thirty-two  offspring,  which  live  for  a  time  in  a  species  of  globular 
colony,  inside  a  thin  envelope,  through  which  each  cell  thrusts 
out  two  flagella.  While  living  as  a  colony,  these  sixteen  or 
thirty-two  cells  act  together,  as  if  actuated  by  a  common  impulse, 
moving  their  flagella  in  unison  to  propel  the  colony.  It  changes 
direction,  tacks  suddenly,  and  otherwise  affords  evidence  that  all 
the  cells  are  acting  together  as  one.  Either  there  is  a  sentient  con- 
tact which  serves  to  enable  the  sixteen  separate  cells  to  act  as  one, 
or  else  a  temporary  species  of  nerv^ous  system,  consisting  of  fila- 
mentous processes  thrust  forth  from  cell  to  cell. 

In  the  oft-cited  instance  of  volvox  globator,  the  colony  is  of 
more  complicated  structure  and  forms  a  large  green  ball,  to  the 
surface  of  which  the  individual  cells  adhere  in  great  numbers,  as 
many   as   twelve   thousands   to   a  ball   having  been   counted.      la 


now    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  6l 

this  case  they  appear  to  touch  each  other  and  are  each  provided 
with  two  flagella  which  project  through  the  membrane.  Here 
each  cell  appears  to  be  a  free  agent  within  its  own  envelope,  but 
projects  protoplasmic  threads  or  filaments,  like  telephonic  wires, 
into  its  neighbors,  by  means  of  which  a  network  of  consentient 
communication  is  established.  .A.t  an  internal  signal  all  the  thou- 
sands of  flagella  swing  in  harmony  like  oars,  and  the  ball  moves 
from  point  to  point.  It  is  clear  that  something  analogous  to  a 
ner\'ous  system  is  here  present,  even  though  of  an  ephemeral 
nature,  consisting  of  filaments  which  can  be  thrust  out  and  with- 
drawn at  will. 

In  the  dioecian  volvox  the  male  colony  remains  apart  from 
the  female  cellules,  except  at  time  of  fecundation,  when  both 
colonies  break  up,  scatter,  and  presently  conjugate  in  pairs  and 
groups. 

Colonies  of  protozoons  which  come  from  a  sing'le  parent  cell 
present  some  analog}-  with  a  multicellular  animal  organism,  which 
also  develops  from  a  single  egg-cell.  The  way,  however,  from  a 
colony  of  protista  to  the  organism  of  a  vertebrate  animal  is  long 
and,  in  its  aetiology,  but  little  understood. 

The  first  metazoons  were  clearly  makeshifts,  owing  to  stress  of 
accidental  conditions.  It  is  likely,  indeed,  that  they  had  often  oc- 
curred for  milhons  of  years,  occurred  thousands  of  times,  but  had 
died  out,  or  progressed  no  further  than  the  polyzoa  we  see  at 
present  time,  owing  to  unvarying  conditions,  flood  and  drought, 
heat  and  cold.  But  at  some  time  one  or  more  of  these  unions  of 
cells  chanced  to  survive  longer  and  took  more  permanent  form, 
sufficient  permanence  to  carry  it  on  and  set  up  a  new  mode  of  life 
by  organization  —  that  organization  and  differentiation  of  cell 
function  which  was  to  play  so  grand  a  part  in  the  future. 

Space  and  a  desire  to  make  the  argument  continuous  prevent 
more  extended  enumeration  of  such  primitive  unions  of  unicellu- 
lar life.  But  one  has  only  to  look  abroad  on  the  face  of  nature 
to  see  conclusive  proof  of  the  position  here  taken.  In  every 
tree,  shrub,  and  ])Iant,  in  every  animal  that  walks,  every  bird  and 
insect  that  flies,  we  behold  an  agglomerated  organized  mass,  or 
congeries,  of  cells,  each  filling  its  place  and  doing  its  appropriate 
part  in  a  cell  commonwealth.     There  may  be  thousands  of  cells  in 


62  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

the  plant  or  insect,  or  there  may  be  millions  in  the  tree  or  the 
animal.  The  proof,  we  say,  is  on  all  sides.  Tree,  animal,  insect, 
alike,  are  examples  of  this  principle  of  e  pluribus  iiniim,  for  the 
common  good  of  all. 

We  wish  here  merely  to  show  the  manner  in  which  the  meta- 
zoons  started,  and  the  significance  of  the  act  when  two  or  more 
protozoons  unite  to  live  one  life  and  become  one  larger  self. 

No  claim  is  set  up  here,  that  we  know  at  present,  from  what 
colonies  or  unions  of  primitive  unicells  the  vertebrata  were  devel- 
oped. Nature,  indeed,  appears  to  have  performed  many  strange 
experiments  in  multicellular  organisms,  long-extended  and  horrible 
experiments,  which  go  far  to  convince  us  that  we  must  not  deify 
or  even  personify  nature.  For  nature  is  elemental  and  impersonal. 
The  unicells  first  organized  in  uncouth  and  savage  forms, 

"  Dragons  of  the  prime  that  tare  each  other  in  their  slime." 

Dinosaur,  megatherium,  and  mastodon  roared  and  battled  through 
ages  that  to  man  are  incomprehensible. 

"  A  monstrous  eft  was  at  one  time  lord  and  master  of  earth, 
For  him  the  bright  sun  shone  and  his  river  billowing  ran." 

Man's  hundred  thousand  years  are  but  as  a  span  to  the  era  of 
vertebrate  monsters  and  monstrosities,  while  earth's  young  uni- 
cells were  making  their  first  tremendous  efforts  at  organization. 

But  when  two  or  more  cells  unite  to  live  together  as  one,  each 
has  first  to  surrender,  temporarily  at  least  and  in  part,  its  own 
self-conscious  personality ;  and  then  as  a  merger  of  all  these  sur- 
rendered personalities  there  ensues  a  larger,  grander  self  about 
a  new  axis  of  self-consciousness. 

The  most  perfect  example  of  this  self-surrender  and  resultant, 
grand  consentience  is  exhibited  in  the  brain  of. man.  Here  tem- 
porarily during  the  day  some  sixty  millions  or  more  of  cells, 
actually  operative,  extend  filamentous  processes  and,  all  taking 
hold  of  hands,  so  to  speak,  surrender  each  its  self-consciousness 
and  autonomy  to  form  the  human  intellect.  From  this  grand  sur- 
render, and  at  the  instant  it  is  made,  there  flashes  forth  the  con- 
sentient human  personality,  the  "  soul  of  man."  It  is  done  as  if 
by  electric  contact.  This  intellect  or  "  soul  "  is  the  union  of  these 
sixty  millions  of  brain  cell  lives;  they  surrender  self  to  live  as  one. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  63 

But  in  the  brain  this  is  but  a  temporary  self-surrender.  Owing 
probably  to  the  severe  vital  draught  which  the  consentience  makes 
on  the  individual  cell,  the  human  intellect  cannot  remain  constant 
or  continuous.  There  must  be  respite  and  recuperation  for  the 
constituent  cells.  Accordingly  we  find  that  after  ten  or  fifteen 
hours  the  consentient  strain  is  relieved;  the  union  is  disrupted. 
Sleep  ensues.  Suddenly,  as  suddenly  as  it  began,  the  brain  cells 
let  go  hands.  The  filaments  are  retracted.  Contact  is  broken. 
Each  cell  resumes  its  individual  life,  becomes  itself  again,  self- 
conscious,  and  attends  to  its  own  personal  affairs  —  nutrition, 
ehmination  of  waste  products,  rest,  growth. 

But  the  instant  the  cells  resume  self-life,  the  human  intellect 
has  ceased,  as  when  electric  contact  is  broken,  unconsciousness 
supervenes. 

Why,  it  may  be  asked,  why  and  how  did  the  first  two  or  more 
protozoons  come  to  unite  their  self-lives  in  one  larger  self?  From 
what  seems  accident  of  the  environment,  perhaps,  on  the  objective 
side;  and  for  greater  comfort,  ease,  and  safety,  on  the  subjective 
side;  or  rather,  when  accident,  or  "the  law  of  chance,"  had 
initiated  the  innovation,  the  subjective  comfort  which  resulted 
from  it  led  to  a  voluntary  and  wilful  continuance  of  the  new 
mode  of  hving. 

For  by  thus  uniting,  a  division  of  the  hard  labor  of  living  was 
possible;  the  single  cell  was  no  longer  compelled  to  face  the 
world  alone  and  perfonn  all  the  various  kinds  of  labor  which  the 
act  of  living  necessitated.  After  combining,  one  cell  could  do  one 
kind  of  work  and  confine  itself  to  that,  and  another,  another 
kind.  One  cell,  or  group  of  cells,  could  attend  to  locomotion,  as 
in  volvox,  another  to  securing  food,  and  still  another  to  digestion 
and  assimilation  of  the  food. 

Soon,  indeed,  one  cell,  or  group  of  cells,  in  the  union,  took 
upon  itself  the  ofiice  of  spying  out  food,  or  sighting  danger  and 
notifying  tlie  motive  group  to  move  forward  swiftly,  or  to  beat  a 
hasty  retreat.  This  spy  cell,  or  group  of  cells,  soon  assumed  the 
leadership.  In  time,  complete  differentiation  of  labor-function  was 
effected.  The  locomotive  or  muscle  group  not  only  performed  no 
other  kind  of  labor,  but  became  unable  to  perform  other.  Its 
internal  organization  conformed  to  this  want  of  the  union.     So  of 


64  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

the  group  which  seized,  or  digested  food,  and  pre-eminently  so  ol 
the  spy  cell  group  which  erelong  devoted  itself  exclusively  to  dis- 
cernment, intelligent  decisions  and  a  general  directorate  and  pro- 
tectorate of  the  other  groups. 

This  apparent  development  of  metazoons  from  protozoons,  of 
so  great  significance  in  the  terrestrial  scheme  of  life,  was  set  forth 
by  this  author  some  years  since  a  little  more  in  detail. 

"  Very  soon  after  creatures  composed  of  many  cells  (meta- 
zoons) were  developed  from  groups  of  unicellular  life,  the  neces- 
sities of  locomotion  in  the  struggle  for  food  led  to  the  differentia- 
tion of  certain  tracts  of  cells  as  bone  and  muscle,  and  finally  to 
the  development  of  the  entire  apparatus  for  mechanical  movements. 

"  Simultaneously,  too,  another  peculiar  species  of  differentia- 
tion began  to  be  necessary,  namely,  a  special  tissue,  whose  office 
should  be  that  of  intercommunication  between  the  different  asso- 
ciated cells  and  tracts  of  cells  which  were  thus  assuming  more  and 
more  diverse  ofiices,  and  becoming  somewhat  different  in  character, 
one  from  another.  It  was  thus  and  for  this  reason  that  a  nervous 
system  began  to  be  needed  and  hence  to  develop;  for  the  plastic, 
living  substance  has  always  shown  a  faculty  of  adapting  itself  to 
widely  variant  functions  and  modes  of  living. 

"  Certain  cells  began  to  take  up  the  business  of  receiving  sensory 
influences  from  outlying  cells  which  were  hard  pressed  or  in  want 
of  food,  and  of  transmitting  such  sensory  influences  to  contiguous 
cells.  In  short,  certain  lines  of  internal  cells  began  to  take  upon 
themselves  the  task  of  conveying  the  sensations  of  others  from  one 
tract  of  the  cellular  mass  to  another  tract,  and  of  interpreting  the 
sensation  received  from  one  tract  to  the  comprehension  of  the  sen- 
tience of  another  tract,  so  that  action,  within  its  sphere  of  action, 
would  ensue  in  the  second  tract.  In  addition  to  their  own  sentient 
economy,  these  lines  of  cells  in  the  incipient  nervous  system  took 
up  the  function  of  common  carriers  of  sense,  and  also  the  office  of 
interpreters  of  the  sensory  language  of  one  order  of  cells  —  if  I 
may  borrow  the  figure  —  to  the  different  language  of  another 
order. 

"  Thus,  humbly,  as  we  conclude  from  observation  of  low  forms 
of  life,  did  the  nervous  system,  or  tissue  of  intelligence,  begin  to 
develop.  Primarily  there  was  but  one  or  two  simple  thread-like 
lines  of  cells  attempting  the  office  of   transmitting   feeling,    and 


Plow    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  65 

succeeding  indifferently  at  first;  but  as  animals  increased  in  size, 
the  business  of  telegraphing  sensation  grew,  and  a  network  of 
lines  was  developed.  Sensation  was  going  both  ways,  and  soon 
the  necessity  of  a  common  center  to  which  sensory  influences 
could  be  brought,  and  thence  distributed  to  their  proper  destina- 
tion, was  forced  upon  the  nascent,  sense-conveying  cells,  and  a 
ganglion,  or  little  brain,  came  into  existence.  The  confusion,  too, 
resulting  from  counter-currents  of  feeling  soon  led  to  the  forma- 
tion of  double  lines,  one  for  transmitting  sensation  inward,  the 
other  for  transmission  outward ;  and  thus  the  divisions  of  sensory 
and  motor  nerves  were  inaugurated  to  and  from  the  little  brain 
center,  which  presently  assumed  the  function  of  deciding  upon  the 
merits  of  transmitted  sensations,  and  responding  to  them  by  a  mes- 
sage from  its  own  sensibility. 

"  Nerve  ganglia  multiplied  as  animals  increased  in  bulk  and 
attempted  larger  movements;  and  in  time,  to  avoid  confusion  and 
get  the  organic  business  done,  one  ganglion  was  obliged  to  take 
the  lead  and  keep  order  among  the  other  ganglia,  to  decide  be- 
tween them  when  they  got  at  variance,  and  generally  to  take  the 
office  of  head  ganglion. 

"  Thus,  in  time,  a  larger  and  capitally  important  ganglion  was 
raised  up  into  prominence  to  perform  the  function  of  oyer  and 
terminer,  a  cerebellum,  and  finally  a  cerebrum,  —  a  mass  of  highly 
organized  cells  which  have  from  long  use  and  inherited  develop- 
ment the  capacity  for  intelligent  perception  and  thought." 

Without  any  attempt  to  present  a  consecutive  line  of  examples 
to  illustrate  the  progressive  development  of  the  cerebro-spinal 
system,  the  above  outline  indicates  the  principle  upon  which  this 
group  of  cells  has  come  forward  to  occupy  its  present  grand 
prominence  as  exponents  of  intelligence. 

In  treating  of  the  cells  of  the  brain  as  individual,  living  crea- 
tures, it  may  be  well  to  set  forth  more  explicitly  what  their  status 
of  intelligence  probably  is,  and  explain  how  far  they  may  be  re- 
garded as  sentient.  It  is  not  claimed  for  any  unicellular  creature 
that  it  possesses  rational  powers  to  such  extent  as  is  evinced  by  an 
organized  tract  of  cells  like  that  of  the  human  brain.  For  in  the 
human  brain  we  find  a  great  number  of  cells  of  four  or  more 
varieties,  devoted  some  to  memorv,  some  to  reason  or  the  com- 


66  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

parison  of  experiences,  some  to  vision,  some  to  hearing,  and  some 
to  the  estimation  of  odors  and  flavors ;  and  it  is  the  sentience 
and  experience  of  them  all  which  are  combined  in  the  human  in- 
tellect. Yet  from  observations  of  unicellular  life  we  find,  as  in 
the  case  of  ciliates,  that  it  is  quite  possible  for  a  single  cell,  no 
larger  than  many  of  the  brain  cells,  to  possess  not  only  sentience, 
but  to  acquire  the  data  of  memory,  and  to  act  from  its  previous 
experience.  Many  forms  of  unicellular  life,  indeed,  behave  ration- 
ally; nor  is  there  reason  to  suppose  that  the  cells  of  the  brain  are 
less  capable  of  perception  and  of  memory.  In  the  brain,  however, 
cells  of  different  tracts  are  concerned  with  experiences  of  particu- 
lar kinds,  some  recording  the  data  of  vision,  others  the  data  of 
hearing,  and  still  others  collating  and  comparing  such  data.  It  is 
probable  that  a  cell  of  the  tract  or  group  in  the  area  of  vision,  for 
example,  is  largely  occupied  with  depiction  of  visual  imagery,  and 
becomes  a  kind  of  living,  sentient  specialist,  or  expert  in  colors 
and  scenery. 

None  the  less  it  is  a  sentient  creature,  with  its  own  internal 
economy  of  nutrition  and  growth.  In  a  word,  it  is  a  sentient  self. 
It  perceives,  lives  and  acts  from  its  own  personal  point  of  view, 
for  its  own  behoof  and  welfare.  This  much  is  quite  certain.  It  is 
a  sentient  creature  and  within  its  limited  sphere  has  acquired  a  kind 
of  wisdom  of  its  own.  Alore  we  cannot  predicate  of  the  individual 
cell.     It  is  a  pygmy  of  a  limited  degree  of  intelligence. 

Nor  does  our  argument  claim  that  tlie  protozoons  first  banded 
together  from  intelligent  foresight  as  to  the  results  of  union.  The 
beginnings  of  metazoic  life  were  probably  accidental  per  se.  But 
the  results  of  union  and  division  of  labor  followed  quite  the  same, 
and  it  is  from  these  actual  results  that  our  conclusions  are  drawn. 
By  union  of  their  hitherto  separate  sentiences  the  cells  evolved  a 
higher  kind  of  sentience,  a  nous,  a  soul,  developed  to  a  higher  de- 
gree of  intelligence,  from  the  exercise  of  which  each  cell  of  the 
organic  union  was  grani^'ly  benefited  in  the  matter  of  food  and 
protection,  and  is  enabled  to  become  a  participator  and  beneficiary 
of  mind. 

The  passage  from  the  unicellular  to  organized  multicellular 
forms  of  life,  from  protozoons  to  metazoons,  was,  we  conclude, 
primarily  effected  by  simple  combinations  of  cells  and  varying  of 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  d'J 

their  functions.  It  was  thus  that  the  organized  life  originated. 
The  question  of  importance  next  to  be  asked  is,  What  was  gained 
by  it?  Of  what  use  was  it?  What  advantage  accrued  from  it  to 
tlie  cells  themselves  which,  from  the  strict  biological  point  of  view, 
are  not  only  tlie  first,  but  the  only  type  of  life  that  has  ever  ap- 
peared on  the  earth?  since  all  terrestrial  life,  organic  as  well  as 
unicellular,  goes  on  by  virtue  and  instrumentality  of  the  cell  mode. 

What  advantage  therefore  has  accrued  to  the  cell,  and  how  far 
has  it  by  this  means  advanced  toward  that  natural  salvation  which 
is  the  goal  of  all  life? 

A  sur\' ey  of  the  whole  field  shows  clearly  that  the  single  cell  made 
a  great  personal  gain  by  uniting  its  life  with  its  fellows.  This  is 
apparent  even  in  the  primitive  colony  of  ciliates,  more  evident  still 
in  volvox,  and  grandly  demonstrated  in  the  animal  organism.  The 
cell  in  the  colony  lived  longer  and  more  comfortably  than  when 
struggling  for  life,  alone;  and  at  the  acme  of  organization,  in  the 
vertebrate  organism,  we  find  cells  which  have  attained  to  what  is, 
for  a  cell,  immortality.  In  unorganized  unicellular  life,  the  aver- 
age lifetime  of  a  cell  may  have  been  less  than  two  days,  not  much 
longer.  In  organized  metazoic  life,  we  find  the  neurons  of  the 
cerebral  cortex  of  an  elephant,  or  a  whale,  for  example,  living  two 
centuries.  By  combining  with  their  fellows,  these  cells,  or  their 
descendants,  have  increased  their  span  of  life  thirty  thousand 
times ! 

In  man  these  brain  cells  often  survive  for  a  century.  Human 
beings,  with  lifetimes  correspondingly  prolonged,  would  live  to 
the  age  of  eighteen  thousand  years. 

It  is  apparent,  moreover,  that  these  groups  of  brain  cells  would 
live  longer  (for  they  give  little  evidence  of  having  exhausted  their 
capacity  for  living  on)  but  for  the  fact  that  they  are  dragged 
down  to  death  by  the  fate  of  the  organism,  i.  e.,  the  failure  of 
co-ordination  among  the  other  tissue  groups  of  cells. 

This  is  profoundly  interesting  as  showing  what  cell  life,  under 
favorable  conditions,  may  accomplish  in  the  way  of  a  vast  lon- 
gevity, from  successful  combinations,  and  organization  generally. 
There  appear  to  be  cells  of  the  brain  which  zvould  live  on  for 
many  centuries  were  it  not  for  accidents  to  other  parts  of  tJie  or- 
ganism. 

Generally   speaking,    longevity   is   the   proof   of   correct    living. 


68  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

That  cell,  or  union  of  cells,  lives  long  that  is  well  nourished  and 
well  protected.  No  animal  organism  is  as  yet  perfect,  even  ap- 
proximately so.  All  the  groups  of  tissue  cells  have  not  been 
equally  advantaged  by  organic  union,  but  taken  together  a  great 
gain  has  resulted,  chiefly  in  the  matter  of  food  and  protection. 
The  brain  and  muscle  cells  of  the  animal  organism,  for  example, 
have  their  food  specially  prepared  for  them  along  the  intestinal 
tract  and  brought  to  them  in  the  arterial  conduits,  and  they  are 
housed  and  shielded  from  the  mordant  action  of  oxygen  and  the 
attacks  of  hostile  bacteria  by  the  integument  and  bony  walls. 

But  how  do  we  know  this?j(it  has  been  asked.  How  do  we 
know  that  the  cell  neurons  of  the  hunian  brain  are  the  same  in 
aged  subjects  as  in  adolescence?  How  do  we  know  that  the  cells 
of  the  human  brain  do  not  progressively  die,  and  are  replaced  by 
new  cells? 

From  the  structure  of  the  cerebral  tissue  and  the  interlaced  proc- 
esses of  the  cells,  in  relation  to  the  mnemonic  economy  of  men- 
tation, anatomists  and  physiologists  had  all  along  inferred  that  the 
neurons  seen  in  aged  subjects  were  identical  with  those  found 
there  when  the  brain  first  developed. 

Incidentally  the  present  writer  obtained  confirmation  of  this 
conclusion,  while  examining,  under  high  amplification,  the  brain 
cells  of  young  and  old  dogs  at  New  York  City,  as  long  ago  as  the 
winters  of  1890-91-92.  The  material  examined  consisted  of  the 
brains  of  twenty-six  dogs,  old  and  young  contrasted.  The  object 
sought  at  that  time  was,  primarily,  to  demonstrate  the  condition 
of  the  cell  processes  and  the  state  of  the  arborizations  in  adoles- 
cence and  young  adult-life,  as  compared  with  the  same  in  old  age. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  discovery  was  made  —  announced  in 
Salvation  by  Science,  in  19 13  —  that  the  causes  of  old  age  in 
animal  organisms,  are  intracellular ;  that  the  component  cells  of  the 
body,  themselves,  grow  old  individually,  or  in  other  words,  that 
the  causes  of  old-aging  are  to  be  sought  within  the  cells  rather 
than  in  the  organism  as  a  whole. 

These  examinations  of  the  brain  cells  of  dogs  of  different  ages 
—  repeated  many  times,  allowing  for  the  necessary  difliculties  and 
the  usual  errata  of  the  staining  process  —  presented  altogether,  in 
their  entirety,  so  good  a  picture  of  progressive  cell  aging  as  to 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  69 

leave  no  doubt  that  these  were,  indeed,  the  same  cells  existing  in 
situ  throughout  the  lifetime  of  the  dog  from  the  age  of  six 
months  to  that  of  fifteen  and  sixteen  years,  which  is  canine  old 
age.  There  was  no  indication  of  proliferation  of  the  cells,  no  new 
cell  growths,  but  uniform  evidences  of  cell  aging,  greater  at  ten 
years  than  at  six,  and  still  greater  at  fifteen  or  sixteen  than  at  ten. 
The  brain  cells  of  very  old  dogs  were  quite  uniformly  smaller, 
shrunken,  more  bound  in  by  formed  matter  and  had  the  proc- 
esses shorter  and  less  distinct.  The  only  exception  to  this  condition 
of  old  brain  tissue,  was  infrequently  a  single  cell  —  one  in  a  thou- 
sand, perhaps  —  which  was  less  decrepit,  so  to  speak,  than  its 
fellows,  from  having  been  favorably  situated  near  two  or  more 
capillaries,  where  it  had  been  better  nourished  from  the  blood 
plasma. 

As  a  whole,  the  picture  presented,  was  that  of  uniformly  aging 
cells,  not  otherwise  than  if  they  were  the  same  cells  remaining 
in  situ  from  youth  to  advanced  age. 

All  the  physiological  cells  are  alike  benefited  in  that  prime 
requisite,  food ;  and  this  fact  must  be  kept  in  view  when  the  higher 
social  organization  of  the  metazoons  is  considered.  Food  specially 
prepared  and  refined  by  groups  of  cells  which  have  made  this  office 
their  business,  has  largely  conduced  to  the  longevity  of  the  physio- 
logical cell  and  made  brain  possible.  Without  a  specially  prepared 
food  the  organic  cell  could  not  survive  for  a  day.  Improved  food, 
protection  from  enemies  and,  subjectively,  that  greater  guiding  in- 
telligence that  comes  from  organic  life,  are  the  factors  which  have 
so  improved  the  cell  (the  protozoon  developed  to  a  neuron)  that  it 
lives  for  a  century  in  man,  and  in  the  whale,  the  carp  and  the 
elephant  for  two  centuries. 

In  plant  life  as  we  now  view  it,  banding  together  has  not  been 
as  advantageous  for  the  saprophytic  cell.  We  have  trees  two 
thousand  years  old;  but  so  far  as  we  at  present  understand  the 
arboreal  economy,  the  vegetable  cellules  are  not  long-lived.  This 
would  follow,  a  priori,  from  the  far  less  perfect  organization  of 
plants,  the  more  crude  food  supplied  to  the  cells,  imperfect  pro- 
tection and  the  apparently  inferior  sentience  of  the  cells  them- 
selves. The  contrast  but  emphasizes  the  deduction  made  for  the 
physiological   cell,   namely,   that   it   has   attained    its   pre-eminence 


70  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

by  perfecting  the  organic  union  of  which  it  is  a  unit.  And  the 
inference  has  sometimes  been  drawn  that  could  the  metazoon  as 
seen  in  the  animal  organism,  be  given  a  more  perfect  development, 
the  component  cells  would  reach  that  acme  of  natural  salvation  for 
which  they  have  striven  for  two  millions  of  centuries  and  would 
become,  in  very  truth,  deathless  cells-of-life. 

There  is  no  more  wonderful  and  grandly  instructive  spectacle 
in  nature  than  this  widespread  and  long-extended  effort  of  the 
globe's  unicellular  life  to  save  and  preserve  itself  from  hardship, 
accident,  disease  and  death.  Nor  has  the  effort  been  "  instinctive  " 
in  any  other  sense  than  all  sentience  is  instinctive.  From  the  sub- 
jective side  of  life,  the  primitive  unicells  of  the  ancient  earth  be- 
gan to  live  together  in  mutual  comfort,  aid,  and  protection,  and 
continued  these  unions  till  by  division  of  labor  and  differentiation 
of  function  the  simple  colony  developed  into  the  vertebrate  animal 
organism,  with  its  thirty  specialized  genera  of  cells,  all  acting  to- 
gether for  the  common  weal. 

Man  must  still  turn  to  the  unicells  for  grand  examples  of  social 
organization  and  progress  by  means  of  organization.  Vastly  and 
grandly  more  than  is  yet  exhibited  in  human  civilizations  have  the 
protozoons  united  and  combined  for  mutual  betterment.  In  this 
maple,  towering  in  leafy  beauty,  we  may  find  two  billions  of  arbo- 
real cells,  organized,  apportioned  for  diverse  labors,  trained  to 
special  work,  devoted  and  artisancd  to  the  production  of  fiber, 
bark,  sugar,  and  chlorophyl,  and  all  in  an  orderly  sequence  of 
effects  and  a  consecration  of  each  cell  self  to  its  appointed  task, 
with  an  apparent  content  and  faith  in  the  outcome,  when  each  does 
his  share,  such  as  the  human  world  has  never  yet  seen  nor  under- 
stood. 

In  that  horse  dashing  along  the  track  we  behold  several  billions 
of  cells,  each  a  living  creature,  an  individual  life,  banded,  united, 
and  organized  in  such  multicellular  complexity  that  it  is  the  glory 
of  anatomy  and  histology  even  to  have  demonstrated  and  de- 
scribed it.  And  in  the  matter  of  locomotion  —  since  speed  is  the 
criterion  on  the  horse  —  we  may  behold  this  entire  body  of  cells 
moving  at  a  si)eed  a  million  times  greater  than  that  at  which  it 
would  be  possible  for  these  cells  to  move  if  living  isolated  and 
solitary,  as  did  the  ancestral  protozoon  on  the  beach  of  the  Cam 
brian  ocean. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE   ACHIEVED  7I 

We  should  not  here  be  understood  as  denying  or  leaving  out  of 
the  account  the  influence  which  the  metazoic  mind  exerts  for 
longevity.  It  is  by  reason  of  this  superior  intelligence,  obtained 
by  banding  the  small  wits  of  the  cells  together,  that  those  better 
conditions  were  gained  which  make  cell  longevity  possible.  Nor 
yet  would  we  appear  to  assert  that  the  animal  organism  lives  for 
the  benefit,  or  at  the  behoof  of  the  component  cells.  In  the  animal 
brain  the  cells  live  to  themselves  only  during  the  eight  or  ten 
hours  of  sleep  daily.  During  waking  hours  the  lives  of  all  these 
cells  are  consentient,  banded  and  blended  together  to  form  the  self- 
conscious  mind  of  the  animal,  which  devotes  its  energies  to  supply- 
ing the  animal  wants.  Without  this  consentient  union  for  menta- 
tion, locomotion,  and  general  muscular  activity,  the  animal  could 
not  have  developed.  The  component  cells  improved,  each  its  indi- 
vidual condition,  by  forming  a  consentient  partnership. 

This  point  might  readily  be  given  fuller  illustration,  and  a 
thousand  examples  of  metazoic  life  cited  in  evidence  of  the  prin- 
ciple, rationale,  and  intent  of  the  passage  from  unicellular  to 
multicellular  life;  but  the  idea  has  been  conveyed;  and  this  is 
enough  for  our  present  purpose.  The  genuineness  of  the  deduc- 
tion can  hardly  be  controverted.  By  banding  together  and  by 
organization,  with  division  of  labor  for  the  common  good  of  the 
union,  the  cell-of-life.  as  first  seen  in  the  protozoon,  has  come  to 
live  two  centuries,  instead  of  two  days,  with  a  legitimate  inference 
that  it  is  practically  deathless  under  improved  organic  conditions. 
That  is  to  say,  there  is  nothing  in  the  constitution  of  the  cell,  no 
biogenetic  law,  that  prevents  it  from  living  indefinitely.  Revolu- 
tionar}'  as  this  deduction  may  appear  to  those  who  teach  and  be- 
lieve that  death  is  a  final  law  of  nature,  the  reverse  of  that  doctrine 
can  now  be  confidently  maintained.  It  need  scarcely  be  added  that 
this  conclusion  is  of  the  greatest  significance,  as  affecting  our  be- 
liefs concerning  human  life  and  the  future  of  life  on  the  earth. 

And  after  metazoons,  what?  After  cell  unions  and  cell  organ- 
ization in  the  animal  organism,  what  next?  After  an  organized 
development  which  has  resulted  in  the  advancement  of  the  cell, 
the  brain  cell,  to  a  high  degree  of  intelligence  and  a  grand  lon- 
gevity, what  next  in  the  line  of  its  progress? 

Bearing  in  mind  that  the  cell  is  the  original  and,  strictly  speak- 


72  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

ing,  the  only  type  or  mode  of  life  which  has  thus  far  appeared  on 
the  earth,  what  means  will  be  adopted  to  still  further  improve 
and  better  its  lot?  Will  it,  of  its  own  initiative,  inaugurate  any- 
thing better  or  greater  than  the  animal  organism  as  w^e  see  it 
about  the  cerebro-spinal  axis  in  vertebrates? 

The  answer  would  seem  to  be  no,  as  regards  the  individual 
cell,  and  yes,  as  regards  the  consentient  union  of  cells  as  displayed 
in  the  brain  and  mind  of  animals  and  man.  And  if  yes,  what  has 
already  been  accomplished  in  this  larger  corporate  capacity? 
Union  and  organization  are  manifestly  the  order  and  method  of 
all  life  on  the  earth.  Since  the  cell  banded  in  the  metazoons  and 
made  a  grand  gain  for  itself  in  so  doing,  we  might  naturally  look 
for  unions  of  metazoons  for  mutual  benefit  and  progress.  But 
here,  as  against  such  actual  unions  by  contact,  the  physical  laws  of 
the  globe  on  which  we  live,  interpose  obstacles.  We  cannot  have 
sixty  millions  of  men,  or  monkeys,  or  elephants  living  in  a  ball, 
like  voh'ox.  Contact-union  for  mutual  aid,  defense,  protection, 
comfort,  and  improved  food  is  limited.  If  we  attempted  to  unite 
or  blend  a  nation  of  people  as  a  metazoon,  or  even  make  it  resem- 
ble one  in  the  matter  of  consentience,  as,  for  example,  the  five 
score  or  more  millions  in  the  United  States,  every  person,  or 
citizen,  would  need  to  be  represented  as  seated,  as  if  at  a  desk  or 
table,  in  one  place,  where  food  and  the  material  for  his  work  were 
brought  to  him  in  ducts  and  tubes.  Still  further,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  conceive  of  them  all  as  built  in  and  encased  by  the 
substances  which  they  manufacture.  Further  still,  and  most  essen- 
tial of  all  to  the  truth  and  pertinence  of  the  simile,  we  should  need 
to  depict  every  citizen  as  connected  with  his  neighbors  and  through 
them  with  every  other  citizen,  by  cables,  bands,  or  cords  of  sentient 
living  matter  continuous  with  his  own  living  substance.  We  must 
picture,  too,  the  more  prominent  class  of  citizens  as  having  thrust 
forth  immensely  long  tentacles,  forming  nets  of  this  same  sentient 
matter,  extending  long  distances  from  their  bodies,  and  lying  in 
close  contact  with  similar  tentacles  belonging  to  hundreds  of  their 
fellows,  in  order  that  they  may  feel  and  literally  sense  all  that 
these  others  do  or  think. 

If  this  condition  of  things  existed  throughout  the  nation,  we 
would  undoubtedly  find  the  individual  citizens  living  as  one 
enormous  National   Person.      In  place  of   a  hundred  millions  of 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  73 

individual  men  and  women,  we  would  see  them  unified  in  a  self- 
conscious  national  life.  Such  a  nation  would  act  and  conduct 
itself  among-  other  nations  as  a  Personal  Being. 

Upon  a  lower  plane  of  inorganic  relationship  of  atom  to  atom, 
and  orb  to  orb,  it  is  possible  that  such  a  unified  personality  pos- 
sesses the  uni\'erse,  answering  to  the  indefinite  conception  of  deity. 
Gravitation  has  been  held  to  be  the  lowly  organized  personality  of 
cosmos,  expressing  itself  in  natural  phenomena.  Von  Hartmann, 
in  his  "  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious,"  appears  to  have  grasped 
some  such  conception,  which,  however,  he  immediately  perverted 
to  the  exigencies  of  an  immoral  philosophy. 

Since  meta-metazoons,  as  of  vertebrates,  are  physical  impossi- 
bilities, the  advantages  which  come  from  union  and  organization 
have  to  be  secured  in  a  different  way,  by  other  methods  of  obtain- 
ing the  necessary  consentience. 

In  hymenoptera  (insect  metazoons)  the  bees  and  ants  offer 
suggestive  examples  of  social  and  economic  unions.  In  the  swarm 
and  apiary  we  find  that  differentiation  of  function  and  division  of 
labor  have  proceeded  far,  and  taken  their  place  in  heredity;  and 
in  the  case  of  the  queen  bee  the  social  organization  has  operated 
to  greatly  prolong  her  life.  Swarm  life  also  serves  to  afford  gen- 
eral protection  from  enemies,  equalize  the  food  supply,  and  defend 
the  union  against  the  rigors  of  climate. 

In  the  termite  ants  we  find  not  onl}/  all  these  advantages  gained 
from  swann  organization,  but  others  that  come  from  war-like 
operations  which  organized  union  renders  possible. 

In  bird  life,  crows,  pigeons,  geese,  penguins,  and  many  other 
species  have  attained  advantages  from  rude  organization ;  and  in 
mammalian  life  there  are  many  humble  examples  of  flocking,  herd- 
ing and  banding  together  for  mutual  benefit,  to  gain  protection 
from  enemies  and  to  secure  food.  The  wild  horse,  bison  and 
caribou  herd  for  protection ;  wolves  form  packs,  to  pull  down 
larger  animals  for  food ;  baboons,  monkeys  and  savage  humans 
band,  tribe  and  horde  for  protection,  better  food  and  companion- 
ship. 

The  lower  vertebrate  orders  and  primitive  man  have  thus  set 
us  examples,  so  to  speak,  pioneered  the  way  and  initiated  that 
larger  organization  by  virtue  of  which  civilization  has  arisen.  The 
early  and  wild  mutations  of  men  furnish  complicated  yet   fairly 


74  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

clear  studies  of  the  development  of  the  nation  from  the  tribe  and 
the  clan.  No  different  principle  is  involved  than  that  seen  to  be 
operative  in  the  flock  and  herd,  and  also  in  the  ant-hill  and  hive. 
It  is  the  instinctive  effort  and  push  of  the  cell-of-life  to  obtain 
better  conditions. 

It  is  not  the  intention  here  to  enter  upon  the  political  history 
of  mankind,  the  rise  of  nations  and  empires,  or  the  causes  of  their 
decline.  Nor  yet  to  trace  the  beginnings  of  commerce,  or  the  rise 
of  the  arts  and  sciences;  or  recount  the  history  of  war  and  the  con- 
stant world-wide  struggle  for  freedom  from  oppression.  It  is  all 
a  part  of  that  process  of  union  and  organization  of  humanity,  to 
secure  higher  advantages.  Sometbing  analogous  to  it  has  taken 
place  among  the  tissue  cells  in  the  development  of  the  animal 
organism :  the  natural  clash  of  conflicting  interests,  the  fight  of 
self  against  self-surrender  for  the  common  good,  that  self-surren- 
der which  comes  so  hard,  yet  always  redounds  subsequently  to  the 
individual  good  and  ennoblement. 

F'or  fifty  thousand  years  the  effort  at  human  organization  has 
ebbed  and  flowed,  operating  blindly,  misled  by  a  thousand  false 
ideals.  Religion  has  fought  against  religion,  cult  against  cult,  and 
"  god  "  against  "  god."  For  the  true  law  of  human  progress  was 
not  yet  perceived.  The  ideal  of  human  confraternity  was  not  yet 
recognized ;  that  ideal  which  the  convexed  surface  of  the  globe  so 
strongly  suggests,  and  which  the  greater  history  of  cell  life  so 
convincingly  teaches.  For  it  is  the  inestimable  privilege  of  our 
science  to  narrate  the  rise  of  the  cell-of-life  and  demonstrate  the 
method  and  law  of  its  progress;  to  found  natural  salvation  and 
uphold  a  new  ideal;  to  confirm  the  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood 
as  taught  by  the  Founder  of  the  Christian  religion  and,  inciden- 
tally, to  show  why  that  sublime  doctrine  has  for  nineteen  centuries 
appealed  so  strongly  to  the  human  heart  —  because  it  is  a  law  of 
terrestrial  life  and  a  necessity  to  further  human  progress. 

The  advisability  of  peace  and  good-will  among  men  had  been 
taught  before  the  Christian  era,  and  the  advantages  of  harmoni- 
ous action  set  forth  by  others;  but  the  Personage  who  appears 
in  history  as  Joshua,  or  Jesus,  was  the  first  who  profoundly  felt 
and  lived  it,  and  gave  his  life  for  it.  In  his  mind  glowed  that 
divine  ideal  of  a  "  kingdom  of  God  "  arising  from  brotherly  love 
and  that  mutual  co-operation  and  union  of  all  humanity   which 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  75 

alone  can  ensure  salvation  under  nature.  Biology  endorses  with  a 
cordial  reverence  the  tremendous  efficacy  of  that  ideal  and  shows 
it  to  be  in  line  with  the  whole  progress  of  life  on  the  earth. 
Science  now  labors  for  the  realization  of  that  ideal.  Other  doc- 
trines of  the  present  Christian  faith  will  fall,  its  eschatology  fade 
away.  That  alone  will  remain;  for  it  is,  indeed,  millions  of  years 
old;  it  has  been  operative  for  two  millions  of  centuries.  Thou- 
sands of  years  before  our  era,  unhistoric  Christs  had  announced  it 
in  horde  and  conclave  and  died  for  it;  but  Jesus  put  it  in  the  form 
of  a  world-faith  for  this  latter  epoch;  and  his  service  of  love  must 
ever  command  our  reverent  affection.  He  identified  himself  with 
that  universal  law  of  life  by  virtue  of  which  corpuscle  and  prime- 
val particle  surrender  their  self -lives  to  form  the  cell  life,  the  cell 
the  human  intellect ;  and  by  virtue  of  which,  still,  the  human  life 
will  hereafter  live  in  the  grander  life  of  a  deathless  humanity. 

For  the  atom  is  not  self-lost  in  the  cell,  nor  the  cell  in  the 
organism,  but  from  its  self-surrender  lives  a  better  and  longer 
life;  and  in  the  future  grand  sodality  of  human  life  the  individ- 
uals will  become  immortal,  even  as  the  cell  has  prolonged  its  life 
in  the  brain.  The  vital  unit  is  not  lost  in  the  union.  What  it  gives 
of  self  to  the  organization  returns  to  it  again  with  compensations ; 
and  he  who  casts  his  life  into  the  consentient  human  effort,  takes 
it  again,  ennobled  by  self-sacrifice;  it  returns  to  him,  christened 
and  imbued  by  the  larger  life  of  which  for  a  time  it  has  formed  a 
part.  The  brain  cell  could  never  have  attained  its  present  estate 
but  for  the  greater  personal  life  of  the  organism  in  which,  for  a 
part  of  the  time,  it  blends  itself. 

For  the  point  to  be  kept  steadily  in  view  is,  that  cell  life,  perfect 
enough  not  to  die,  but  live  on  continuously,  is  a  question  and 
merely  a  question  of  excellent  food,  protection  from  injury,  loftier 
joys  and  germinal  renewal,  and  not  that  death  is  a  final  law  of 
nature,  as  a  false  eschatology  has  hitherto  taught  mankind. 

Two  millions  of  centuries  have  struggled  forward  in  pain  and 
travail  to  make  the  human  brain  capable  of  the  human  intellect. 
It  is  a  priceless  heritage,  the  great  ancestral  estate  of  humanity. 
It  is  not  destined  forever,  nor  much  longer,  to  be  lost  in  death ; 
we  shall  carry  it  through  to  a  greater  destiny.  The  true  scope 
and  intent  of  life  is  now  just  dawning  in  the  minds  of  men.  \\'e 
are  waking,  —  after  idle  dreams,  —  waking  to   what   we  can  do 


76  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

and  be,  waking  to  the  great  possibilities  of  science,  waking  to  live, 
instead  of  resigning  ourselves  to  death. 

Parent  and  child,  through  a  hundred  generations,  constitute  in 
reality  but  one  human  personality,  pressing  forward,  in  time,  to 
become  something  better,  wiser,  more  powerful  and  happier.  The 
parent  dies  and  the  child  succeeds,  but  at  a  vast  loss  of  knowledge 
and  of  time,  not  because  death  and  birth  are  the  ideal  or  ultimate 
laws  of  life,  but  merely  because  we  have  not  yet  acquired  suffi- 
cient knowledge  and  power  to  escape  death.  The  human  per- 
sonality, incarnate,  living  on  from  century  to  century,  conserving 
science,  able  to  renew  itself  and  resist  all  the  vulgar  agencies  of 
decay  and  death,  is  the  ideal  human  being,  not  a  chain  of  parents 
and  children. 

But  life,  as  we  now  live,  is  one  long  contention  with  accidents, 
bacteria,  improper  food,  duress  of  climate  and  hostile  fellow 
creatures.  First  the  cell  was  driven  to  a  mode  of  reproduction, 
to  escape  extinction ;  multicellular  creatures  developed  from  cells 
and  may  be  said  to  have  inherited  the  reproductive  mode  of  life. 
Humanity  has  arisen  from  its  lower  ancestry  to  its  present  estate, 
by  virtue  of  the  reproductive,  alternate  mode  of  life.  Hence,  to 
die  appears  to  many  persons  to  be  as  natural  a  fate  as  to  be  born; 
yet  when  more  closely  examined,  death  is  seen  to  be  an  unnatural 
event,  a  result  of  hardship  and  distress,  a  fate  repugnant  to  life 
everywhere  and  a  catastrophe  to  be  escaped. 


THE  CELL-OF-LIFE 

In  view  of  the  amazing  complexity  of  the  animal  organism,  as 
inherited  by  human  beings,  and  the  involved,  interactive  processes, 
and  complexes  of  energy,  upon  which  organic  life  depends,  the 
attainment  of  deathless  life,  or  even  greatly  prolonged  life,  al- 
ways appears,  prima  facie,  as  chimerical.  Regarded  merely  as  a 
complicated  machine  —  the  one  and  only  view-point  of  many 
critics  —  it  is,  indeed,  wonderful  how  a  human  life  can  go  on  for 
a  week  or  even  a  single  day.  Yet  constantly  we  see  it  going  on  in 
health  and  vigor  for  four  score  years  and  even  for  a  century. 
How  is  this  marvel  accomplished  in  organisms  so  frail,  so  involved? 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  ^y 

The  answer  to  the  question,  when  correctly  apprehended,  sets 
the  whole  matter  of  life  in  a  clearer  light,  and  incidentally  reveals 
the  grounds  on  which  rests  the  newer,  later  faith  in  immortal  life 
from  the  sciences. 

It  rests  on  the  cell-of-life. 

It  founds  on  the  fact  that  animal  organisms  are  produced  by 
minute  units,  each  a  living  creature  and  each  possessing  the  power 
of  growth  and  self-repair.  It  is  in  this  respect  that  the  human 
body  differs  fundamentally  from  a  machine,  a  mere  mechanical 
contrivance.  For  though  it  is  an  apparatus  involving  mechanics, 
that  apparatus  is  upheld  continuously  by  the  labors  and  contribu- 
tions of  millions  of  tiny  artisans,  each  self-sustaining  and  self- 
renewing.  Under  conditions  of  an  ideal  scientific  nutrition  and 
protection,  the  cell-of-life  is  capable  of  living  and  performing  its 
vital  functions  i^idefinitely. 

And  what  of  this  cell-of-Hfe? 

It  is  very  small;  but  suiall  and  large  are  relative  terms  merely; 
and  though  to  the  unaided  eye  usually  less  than  the  i-iooo  of  an 
inch  in  diameter,  the  cell  as  we  see  it  and  inherit  it  in  our  tissues, 
is,  in  another  sense,  a  large  organism  —  the  standard  embodiment 
of  terrestrial  life.  Compared  with  those  low  attenuations  of  mat- 
ter which  science  now  recognizes,  the  cell-of-life  indeed  is  almost 
colossally  large  and  complex.  By  virtue  of  its  delicate,  involved 
organization,  we  see  the  inherent,  sentient  property,  which  all 
matter  possesses,  raised  up  to  a  degree  of  intelligence,  capable  of 
self-direction  and  able  to  inaugurate  self-motion,  in  a  word,  able 
to  live  and  move  about.  For  if  there  is  such  a  thing  as  free  will 
anywhere  in  the  universe,  it  is  within  this  little  cellule  of  living 
matter. 

Amplified  by  our  highest  microscopic  powers,  a  cell  may  be 
made  to  look  as  large  as  an  acorn.  The  cytoplasm,  of  which  the 
body  of  it  is  composed,  now  appears  as  a  delicate  net-work  or  lace- 
work,  evidently  organized  for  vital  functions.  Within  it  is  another 
Httle  mass,  also  organized  and  more  vivific,  called  the  nucleus. 
At  times,  too,  we  are  able  to  see  other  bodies  within  the  net- work, 
a  centrosome,  chromosomes,  granules  and  passive  plastids,  also 
vacuoles. 

Manifestly  the  nucleus  is  the  inner  seat  of  the  cell  life.  When 
Btained,  the  nuclear  net-work  reveals  itself  more  vividlv  than  the 


y8  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

cytoplasm  of  the  cell  body,  in  the  so-called  chromatin  and  linin  net- 
work. When  the  cell  divides  in  reproduction,  the  nucleus  also 
divides,  after  undergoing  profound  changes. 

We  have  whole  volumes  and  courses  of  lectures,  treating  of  the 
changes  seen  to  occur  within  this  cell-of-life;  but  as  to  what  actually 
takes  place  in  the  substance  or  texture  of  the  net-work  of  living 
matter,  when  the  cell  takes  in  food  and  assimilates  it,  in  order  to 
live  and  grow  and  divide  in  offspring,  we  know  very  little,  as  yet, 
and  have  great  need  to  know  more.  A  sentient  impulse,  as  yet 
unseen,  unclassified,  guides  these  processes. 

Aionths  and  years  of  patient  observation  have  been  devoted  to 
a  study  of  these  cell  changes,  as  indicated  to  us  by  the  microscope 
and  the  methods  of  staining  which  have  been  devised  to  render 
them  visible.  Nucleus  and  centrosome  have  long  been  objects  of 
closest  scrutiny  —  why  they  divide,  why  the  "  spindle  "  and  "  pole- 
bodies  "  form  to  usher  in  fission  and  prelude  the  birth  of  a  new 
cell.  For  when  properly  nourished,  the  cell,  if  no  other  labor  is 
imposed  on  it,  tends  to  multiply  itself  and  give  birth  to  offspring. 
What  is  of  great  interest  to  us,  however,  in  this  inquiry,  is  the  fact 
that  if  the  wants  of  the  entire  organism  of  which  it  is  a  loyal  unit 
demand  of  it  the  function  of  a  muscle  cell,  we  shall  see  the  cell 
turn  its  energies  in  obedience  to  this  demand  and  produce  not  off- 
spring, but  a  contractile  substance  which  makes  locomotion  pos- 
sible. 

Or  if  a  brain  cell,  we  may  see  it  devote  its  capabilities  not  to 
reproducing  itself,  but  to  the  generation  of  what  seem  to  be  cur- 
rents of  sublimated  matter  for  use  throughout  the  whole  organism. 
But  the  intimate  nature  of  these  processes,  the  key  to  it  all, 
remains  to  be  demonstrated. 

It  is  as  if,  hovering  like  an  aviator  above  some  busy  factory, 
we  were  looking  down  on  the  looms,  the  flying  shuttles  and  whirl- 
ing spindles,  with  no  clear  notion  of  what  the  motive  power  was, 
or  what  was  being  woven. 

At  such  a  disadvantage,  indeed,  is  the  observer,  with  his  present 
microscopic  powers,  that  we  have  come  to  think  further  visual 
scrutiny  of  the  cell-of-life  of  little  avail,  and  that  we  shall  do  bet- 
ter to  attack  the  problem  by  experimentation  otherwise.  Deep 
down  in  the  cell  we  are  dealing  not  with  physics,  but  with  a  sen- 
tience which  is  the  raw  material  of  psychic  phenomena. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  79 

Conflicting  views  have  often  found  expression  as  to  the  real 
character  of  the  cell-of-Hfe  and  its  relation  to  the  animal  organism. 
It  has  often  been  held,  and  is  so  still,  that  it  is  the  life  of  the 
organism  as  a  whole  which  not  only  holds  the  component  cells  in 
function,  but  which  calls  tliem  into  existence  as  cells. 

While  the  first  limb  of  this  hypothesis  is  true  in  some  degree 
of  the  physiological  cell,  at  present,  it  is  yet  difficult  to  understand 
how  the  biologist  who  has  comprehensively  studied  the  develop- 
ment of  living  forms  on  the  earth's  surface  from  early  ages  to 
present  times,  can  endorse  the  second  claim,  namely,  that  the  life 
of  the  organism  calls  its  cells  into  existence,  to  suit  its  needs.  To 
the  present  writer  such  a  claim  reverses  the  first  principles  of  ter- 
restrial evolution. 

This  is  said  in  full  view  and  recognition  of  the  sway,  direction 
and  dominancy  of  the  organic  life,  as  a  whole,  over  the  individual 
cell ;  —  even  as  the  State  governs  but  does  not  create  or  beget  the 
individual  man. 

It  has  been  held,  too,  that  the  fact  that  cells  in  certain  tissues  of 
the  organism,  and  in  plants,  are  found  to  be  connected  by  living 
fibrils  of  the  nature  of  protoplasmic  bands,  continuous  from  cell  to 
cell,  is  evidence  that  the  cell  is  not  a  separate  center  of  life,  but  a 
confluent  portion  of  the  protoplasm  of  the  body  as  a  whole,  with 
nothing  resembling  autonomy  of  its  own. 

The  truth  of  this  matter,  from  the  histological  standpoint,  is 
that  ninety-nine  per  cent,  of  all  the  cells  of  the  animal  body  are 
clearly  disjunct,  connected  with  each  other  only  by  fibrils  and 
processes  that  touch  ca-ch  other,  or  communicate  cell  with  cell  only 
by  means  of  rather  elaborate  end  organs  which  strongly  suggest 
sentient  contact,  or  even  communication  of  an  electrical  nature. 

Only  a  relatively  very  small  number  of  cells  in  the  animal  or- 
ganism are  siamesed  by  protoplasmic  bands,  continuous  from  the 
cytoplasm  of  one  cell  to  that  of  another.  It  is  the  rare  exception, 
not  the  laile,  and  appears  to  the  present  writer  to  show  merely 
that  the  exigency  for  united  action  in  such  instances  is  so  impera- 
tive that  these  avenues  have  been  set  up  the  more  certainly  to 
ensure  unified  activity,  and  by  no  means  to  disprove  that  the  cells 
are  individualized  centers  or  units  of  the  organic  life. 


8o  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Every  cell  of  the  organism  gives  forth  an  emanation,  both  par- 
ticulate and  dynamic  —  sublimated  matter  in  motion  —  in  re- 
sponse to  the  stress  on  its  life  from  without.  Blended  together, 
millions  of  them,  the  cell  emanations  form  the  great  neuro-elec- 
tronic  aura  of  the  body  which,  acting  reflexly,  rules,  controls  and 
holds  each  cell  to  its  task.  That  portion  or  tide  of  it  which  is 
directed  by  the  mind  we  term  the  will  power,  and  sometimes  speak 
of  it  as  *'  nen-ous  energy." 

That  the  cell-of-life  is  a  relatively  large  organization  of  smaller 
vivific  bodies  ("physiological  units;"  "biophors")  has  been  and 
remains  the  mature  conviction  of  the  most  eminent  exponents  of 
biology.  Everything  in  nature  points  to  the  truth  of  such  a  con- 
viction ;  and  we  may  add  that  it  is  the  view  here  endorsed. 

The  cell-of-life  is  selected  here  as  the  basis  for  work  in  the  effort 
to  control  organic  life  and  prolong  it  at  will,  because  this  little 
mass  of  living  matter  is  the  one  which  displays  phenomena  which 
have  all  along  been  regarded  as  vital  phenomena.  For  that  reason 
it  is  the  logical  starting-point  for  an  effort  of  research  which  has 
to  deal  with  bio-chemistry. 

Let  it  be  repeated,  however,  that  the  cell-of-life  is  by  no  means 
treated  of  here  as  the  lowest  living  unit  in  the  universe  of  matter. 
An  electron,  indeed,  may  be  as  "  personal  "  as  a  cell.  Yet  for  the 
reasons  cited  above,  the  cell  is  the  logical  starting-point  of  an 
effort  to  control  terrestrial  life. 

Nor  does  the  fact  that  the  cell  is  an  organized  sodality  of  smaller 
living  bodies  —  electrons,  for  example  —  in  the  least  rob  it  of  its 
individual  life,  or  personalized  character,  since  in  the  cell  the  com- 
ponent electrons  are  clearly  organized  about  a  personal  axis,  and 
for  the  time  being  pool  their  smaller  lives  in  the  greater  personal 
life  of  the  cell. 

From  the  center  of  these  small  spherules,  life  is  exhibited.  In 
consistency,  the  living  substance  is  semi-fluid ;  it  is  so  nearly  trans- 
parent as  to  be  deemed  colorless ;  and  it  does  not  give  off  odorous 
particles.  As  above  remarked,  it  is  ordinary  matter,  oxygen,  hydro- 
gen, nitrogen,  carbon,  etc.,  and  the  cause  of  its  peculiar  behavior, 
in  the  living  condition,  is  in  all  probability  the  manner  in  which 
the  particles  are  combined,  and  their  arrangement  and  relations 
one  with  another. 


now    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  8 1 

More  profoundly,  when  we  seek  to  know  why  Hving  matter 
always  assumes  the  form  of  and  exists  always  in  the  small  spheri- 
cal integers,  termed  "  cells."  we  are  brought  to  contemplate  a  new 
law  of  matter  which  apparently  acts  counter  to  gravitation,  or, 
as  is  more  likely,  prevails  upon  an  interior  plane  of  matter  within 
that  on  which  gravitation  acts.  It  is  the  sway  and  prevalence  of 
gravitation  over  ordinary  matter  which  causes  the  world  of  matter, 
as  we  see  it,  to  appear  lifeless  and  inert.  But  in  living  matter,  or 
protoplasm,  we  behold  a  law  of  matter  find  expression,  subversive 
of  gravity,  prevalent  over  it,  and  transfiguring  ordinary  matter  in 
spite  of  gravity.  This  may  seem  a  bold  statement.  Life,  indeed, 
has  been  held  by  many  biologists  to  be  a  co-relative  of  gravitation, 
a  cognate  and  derivative  mode  of  the  universal  energy  of  matter. 
Cognate,  indeed,  it  no  doubt  is;  derivative  also  in  the  loose  sense 
of  being  aided  and  facilitated  by  it  in  all  the  larger  forms  of  ter- 
restrial life;  for  it  is  assuredly  not  the  intention  here  to  convey 
the  idea  that  the  ordinary  functions  of  animals  are  carried  on  con- 
tT3.Ty  to  gravity  or  chemism.  The  writer  ventures,  however,  to 
set  forth  the  conception  that  within  a  normal  cell  of  living  matter 
there  is  an  expression  of  energy  not  derived  from  gravitation,  but 
superior  to  it ;  as  if  emanating  from  an  inner  seat  of  energy.  Such 
an  opinion  by  no  means  conilicts  with  the  monistic  conception  of 
energy.  It  is  meant  merely  to  set  forth  that  life  is  not  the  imme- 
diate derivative  of  gravitation,  or  chemism,  which  many  physical 
philosophers  have  been  inclined  to  consider  it,  but  rather  a  static 
property  which  antedates  gravity,  and,  in  the  intimate  composition 
of  matter,  outranks  it. 

Indeed,  the  truer  view  of  this  great  question  is,  probably,  that 
life  finds  but  an  irregular,  erratic  expression  in  the  superficies 
of  the  terrestrial  globe,  where  gravity  and  the  grosser  modes  of 
universal  energy  prevail  as  a  rule.  Yet  the  conception  will  be 
found  to  grow  in  the  mind  of  the  student  of  living  matter,  that 
this  wonderful  static  property  is  a  very  universal  property;  in  a 
word,  that  all  matter  is  sentient  at  bottom;  and  that  its  apparent 
insentienee,  or  lifelessness  and  inertia,  as  seen  on  the  earth,  is  less 
a  natural  than  an  unnatural  and  fortuitous  condition  into  which 
it  has  fallen  from  the  involution,  incident  to  planetary  formation. 

This  view  need  not  incline  the  student  to  entertain  pantheistic 
conceptions  of  matter,  or  drift  away  to  extreme  opinions  as  to 


82  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

a  universal  mind  inherent  in  nature :  an  ocean  of  omniscient  in- 
tellect, from  which  our  "  souls  '"  are  stray  driblets.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  entire  trend  and  drift  of  biological  science  are  to  the 
effect  that  the  primary  static  property  of  matter  is  sentience  only 
in  the  sense  that  the  raw  flax  is  damask,  that  the  crude  ore  is  a 
steel  warship,  and  that  in  the  great  tracts  of  universal  matter  there 
is  nothing  more  intelligent  than  the  elements  of  intelligence;  even 
as  in  "  protoplasm  "  of  lowly  grade  there  is  little  save  the  capacity 
to  feel.  Be  it  remembered,  too,  that  there  is  now,  probably,  no 
"  protoplasm  "  existent  on  the  earth's  surface  of  such  lowly  grade, 
such  archaic  simplicity  upon  the  scale  of  intelligence,  as  that  which 
first  stirred,  on  the  early  shores  of  the  azoic  oceans. 

As  the  student  examines  those  wonderful  little  integers,  the 
"  cells,"  day  by  day,  the  inquiry  constantly  presents  itself.  Why 
does  the  living  matter  adopt  this  form?  Why  does  it  live  in  these 
little  globules  of  uniform  size? — for  although  the  size  of  cells 
differs  considerably,  relatively  to  each  other,  in  different  tissues  and 
situations,  the  difference  is  mainly  within  certain  definite  limits ; 
and  the  general  type  and  form  are  unmistakable  and  apparently 
unchangeable. 

Why  does  protoplasm  exist  in  such  small  measures  of  sub- 
stance, each  scarcely  more  than  a  pin's  point?  Why  do  its  "  cells  " 
fail,  since  they  are  constantly  growing,  to  attain  larger  size,  an 
inch  or  more  in  diameter  ?  Why  do  they  not  coalesce  in  the  tissues 
into  one  sentient  working  mass?  And  why,  on  the  contrary,  do 
they  constantly  divide,  when  these  small  dimensions  are  reached, 
and  become  dormant,  die  even,  rather  than  transgress  them  ?  These 
are  inquiries  which  the  student  will  find  often  recurring  as  he 
observes  cell  life.  The  idea  conveyed  from  the  totality  of  such 
questionings  is  one  of  a  certain  ever-present  barrier  to  protoplasmic 
life,  or  a  constantly  restricting  law  which  makes  life  on  the  earth 
possible  only  in  this  small  form,  or  type.  Some  stress  of  terres- 
trial matter  appears  to  confine  life  to  this  minute  expression.  This 
little  cell  is  the  only  way  in  which  life  up-wclls  from  the  profound 
depths  of  matter.  For  it  is  apparent  that  the  cell  is  but  the  form, 
through  which  some  very  esoteric  or  final  property  of  matter 
flickers  up. 

So  great  confusion  of  thought  has  often  been  exhibited  on  this 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  83 

subject  of  cell  consentience  that  it  is  important  to  set  the  matter  in 
a  clear  light.  In  the  cell-of-life  we  have  presented  the  spectacle  of 
a  thousandth  of  a  grain  of  matter  which  has  set  itself  to  liz'c,  set  up 
for  itself  as  against  the  rest  of  the  universe,  stepped  out  from  its 
former  relationship  and  allegiance  to  other  matter,  and  started  a  new 
little  world  of  its  own.  For  that  is  what  a  living  cell  really  is :  a 
minute  portion  of  universal  matter  which  has  set  up  autonomy. 
The  laws  of  matter  no  longer  control  this  thousandth  of  a  grain 
of  matter  as  formerly. 

In  every  animal  and  in  every  cell  there  is  always  matter,  a  large 
per  cent,  of  its  bulk,  ^^■hich  is  not  living,  and  hence  inert;  but  the 
really  living  portion  of  the  cell  carries  itself  in  defiance  of  gravi- 
tation. True,  it  is  borne  on  by  the  earth  on  its  orbit  and  revolves 
with  it ;  none  the  less  it  is  able  to  direct  chemical  action  for  its  own 
behoof  and  combine  forces  to  overcome  gravity  when  it  wishes  to 
climb  hills  or  trees.  In  a  word,  it  fights  gravitation  to  do  as  it 
pleases,  and  succeeds.  So  long  as  it  lives  and  is  not  crushed  out, 
it  is  to  a  degree  independent  and  self-directive. 

As  to  the  origin  of  life  on  the  earth,  we  have  no  certain  knowl- 
edge as  yet,  whether  it  came  here  from  some  other  world  in  space, 
or  originated  here  from  a  capacity  to  live  inherent  in  matter.  The 
former  supposition  puts  the  question  of  origin  one  step  farther 
away ;  the  latter  is  the  one  to  which  all  intermediary  theories  must 
ultimately  lead. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  believe  that  there  are  other  planetary  globes 
where  life  develops  more  easily  and  with  less  travail  and  duress 
than  on  our  earth.  It  is  not  incredible  that  the  first  cell,  spore,  or 
perhaps  still  more  rudimentary  germ  of  life,  arrived  here  from 
some  other  world.  It  has  been  held  that  the  "  molecule  of  proto- 
plasm," so  called,  could  not  have  originated  on  the  earth.  Cell  life, 
it  is  maintained,  does  not  now  originate  spontaneously ;  and  the 
inference  is  therefore  easy  that  the  first  unicellular  life  of  the  globe 
was  from  an  implantation. 

This  conjecture  once  admitted,  the  next  surmise  might  be  that 
the  earth  was  life-seeded  by  design,  or  from  personal  motives,  on 
the  part  of  intelligent  beings  inhabiting  a  more  life-fertile  globe  in 
space.  And  it  is  more  reassuring  to  think  that  such  vital  implanta- 
tion was  from  beneficent  design  and  to  conceive  of  it  as  Divine. 


84  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

It  is  a  moral  contradiction  that  beings  more  intelligent  than  man 
should  be  malevolent.  On  this  earth,  at  least,  normal  intellectual 
development  does  not  tend  to,  or  eventuate  in,  malevolence  and 
cruelty,  but  rather  in  a  desire  to  give  happiness.  By  human  stand- 
ards, an  omniscient  mind  could  not  be  a  "  Satan  " ;  yet  we  do  not 
know  what  exists  afar.  There  is  not  much  in  the  present  life 
struggle  on  the  earth  that  indicates  mercy,  kindness,  or  beneficence. 
There  is  no  biological  evidence,  pro  or  con.  The  attitude  of 
the  universe  toward  life  on  the  earth  seems  to  be  impersonal  and 
neutral.  Animal  and  vegetable  life  grows,  bears  seed  and  dies, 
unwatered,  uncherished,  unharvested.  And  while  at  first,  owing 
to  long  indoctrination,  this  thought  of  uncherished  neglect  pains 
many  minds,  it  must  on  reflection  come  to  be  regarded  as  a 
glorious  heritage  of  liberty  —  the  liberty  of  the  universe. 

x\s  nearly  as  can  be  estimated  there  is  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  at  present,  "  protoplasm  "  (meaning  matter  temporarily  in 
that  condition  of  reciprocal  activity  which  we  term  "  living  mat- 
ter") to  the  amount  of  5,500,460,500,000  tons;  the  sum  total  of 
cells. 

Temporarily  in  the  living  condition,  we  say.  For  a  significant, 
almost  startling  phase  of  it  is,  that  this  vast  quantity  of  matter 
is  constantly  passing  out  of  the  living  into  the  non-living  condi- 
tion. As  often  as  once  in  six  hours,  probably,  once  in  twelve 
certainly  on  an  average,  the  entire  five  or  six  trillions  of  tons  of 
protoplasmic  matter  falls  out  of  the  hving  into  the  non-living  con- 
dition ;  and  pari  passu  an  equally  vast  weight  of  non-living  matter 
is  transformed  to  the  living  condition.  It  is  believed  that  all,  or 
the  most  part,  of  the  matter  which  makes  up  the  outer  strata  of 
the  earth  to  the  depth  of  many  miles,  has  at  some  time  or  other 
been  in  the  living  state,  and  not  once  or  twice  only,  but  many 
times. 

We  may,  indeed,  go  much  farther  and  not  exceed  what  is 
probable  in  supposing  that  in  the  great  past  history  of  the  uni- 
verse—  a  history  of  successive  series  of  solar  and  planetary  for- 
mations—  matter  has  lived  in  an  indefinite  number  of  forms  and 
types  of  life  from  eternity,  intermittently  and  alternately. 

For  here  it  is  significant  to  note  the  reversion  of  scientific 
opinion    from  the   extremes   of   the   dynamic   hypothesis   of   pure 


HOW    IT    WILX    BE    ACHIEVED  85 

force,  toward  the  Newtonian  idea.  Light  and  also  heat  and 
electricity  are  not  only  dynamic,  but  material.  Force,  so  far  as 
we  know  it,  is  always  associated  with  an  efflux  of  matter. 

The  method  by  which  this  continuous  passage  of  non-living 
into  living  matter  is  effected,  is  association  and  contact  with 
previously  existing  living  matter.  The  non-living  must  be  infused 
into  the  living  matter  ere  the  non-living  can  be  re-vitalized. 

The  intimate  impulse  which  accomplishes  this  vast  transfigura- 
tion seems  to  be  a  subjective  one,  resident  in  the  "  protoplasm  " 
itself,  or,  in  other  words,  in  the  matter  which  is,  for  the  passing 
hour,  in  the  living  condition,  and  which  sinks  down  from  that 
living  condition,  while  in  the  act  of  raising  up  non-living  matter  to 
its  own  level.  The  impulse,  or  working  energy,  is  apparently  a 
transgression  of  subjective  sentience  into  matter-moving  power  or 
motion,  effected  at  a  great  depth  of  atomicity,  on  that  low  plane 
where  particles  are  able  to  move  in  response  to  a  primarily  sen- 
tient property  which  they  universally  possess. 

It  is  from  this  low  plane,  or  condition  of  tenuity,  that  "  pro- 
toplasm "  is  built  up,  and  sets  forth  in  its  wonderful  career.  On 
the  earth  as  we  now  inhabit  it,  life  struggles  upward  from  this 
deep-lying,  sentient  plane  of  matter  in  the  teeth  of  a  gigantic 
resistance.  The  energy  impounded  in  "  protoplasm  "  is  largely 
expended  in  overcoming  this  resistance;  the  bulk  of  our' living 
substance  has  necessarily  been  impressed  into  mechanical  sen-ice. 
—  bone,  teeth,  hair,  cuticle,  muscle,  tendon,  in  order  to  make  way 
and  obtain  food.  This,  in  fact,  is  life  on  earth,  as  man  has  thus 
far  led  it ;  but  it  is  possible  to  improve  the  earth  as  a  theater  of 
life,  and  by  the  control  and  regulation  of  its  natural  forces,  to 
lessen  the  resistance. 

Growth  is  a  law  of  living  matter;  and  on  the  earth's  surface 
"protoplasm"'  is  capable,  under  ordinarily  favorable  circumstances, 
of  increasing  its  bulk  much  more  rapidly  than  it  wastes,  or  dies. 

It  is  able  to  conserve  energy.  A  cell  is  capable  of  raising  up 
a  greater  amount  of  non-living  matter  into  the  living  condition 
than  it  loses  by  the  act  of  so  doing. 

The  only  limit  to  such  growth  is  the  capacity  of  the  earth  as  a 
field  for  life;  it  tends  to  sustain  as  much  matter  in  the  living  con- 
dition as  it  has  room  for.  The  various  genera  and  species  of 
living  things,   moreover,   mutually   limit   and   restrict   each   other. 


86  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

But  for  aniiiials,  plants  would  probably  overrun  the  earth  to  the 
full  extent  of  its  standing  room;  but  for  some  species  of  animals, 
others  would  increase  inordinately.  Bacteria,  in  a  favorable 
medium,  propagate  at  a  rate  of  which  no  conception  can  be  given 
in  figures. 

The  point  of  interest  concerning  this  is  that,  given  favorable 
conditions,  with  no  checks  to  its  growth,  the  tiniest  dot  of  pro- 
toplasm might  convert  all  the  available  matter  of  the  universe 
into  "protoplasm!"  or,  in  other  words,  when  once  a  viodiciim  of 
matter,  ever  so  small,  has  entered  the  living  condition,  it  has  the 
power  to  draw'  an  infinite  quantity  of  contiguous  matter  into  the 
same  life-expressing  combination,  and  continue  the  process  in- 
definitely. It  is  as  if  the  universe  of  matter  were  combustible 
and  the  dot  of  "  protoplasm,"  introduced  into  it,  were  a  spark  of 
fire,  —  with  this  important  difference,  however,  that  growth  of 
living  matter  implies  the  raising  up  of  matter  to  higher  degrees 
of  complexity,  or  the  storing  up  of  potential  energy  in  matter,  the 
reverse  of  igneous  combustion.  While  w^e  cannot  affiiTn  that 
growth  of  "  protoplasm  "  is  creative  of  energy,  it  is  certainly  con- 
servative of  energy  in  a  manner  elsewhere  and  otherwise  unknown. 
In  this  so-called  protoplasm,  a  higher  or  more  primary  attribute 
of  matter,  to  wit,  sentience,  appears  to  make  heat,  light,  and  kin- 
dred modes  of  energy  its  servants  and  to  successfully  stem  the 
ordinary  effects  of  katabolism. 

In  past  ages  of  the  world,  noticeably  the  carboniferous,  a  far 
greater  quantity  of  matter  has  been  in  the  living  condition  at  one 
and  the  same  time  than  at  present;  the- indications  are  that  there 
have  been  periods  when  the  continents  sustained  twenty  times 
more  vegetable  protoplasm,  year  by  year,  than  during  the  present 
era.  From  age  to  age  the  quantity  has  varied  in  accord  with  the 
terrestrial  conditions. 

As  yet  we  know  no  method  of  transmuting  non-living  into  living 
matter  apart  from  the  agency  of  previously  existent  living  matter. 
But  no  more  can  we  at  present  make  feldspar,  or  mica,  or  gold,  or 
silver,  or  lead.  It  is  as  likely  that  we  shall  discover  a  method  of 
producing  living  matter,  as  that  we  shall  learn  to  produce  any  of 
these  substances.  The  task  waits  a  deeper  knowledge  of  matter, 
but  is  impossible  only  for  the  present. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  87 

One  reason  for  believing  that  new  protoplasm  and  new  pro- 
tozoa no  longer  come  into  existence  spontaneously  is  that  many 
or  all  of  the  micro-organisms  which  we  study  under  the  micro- 
scope are  new  only  in  the  sense  of  being  newly  discovered  by  us. 
Many  of  the  disease-bacteria  were  at  least  operative  and  produced 
the  same  poisons  three  thousand  years  ago.  The  diatomaceae  of 
to-day  exhibit  the  same  characteristics  and  the  same  silicious 
envelope  as  those  taken  from  fossiliferous  strata  laid  down  in  the 
seas  of  the  tertiary  epoch.  In  fact,  many  of  the  genera  of  micro- 
organisms are  the  most  venerable  and  changeless  of  anything  upon 
the  earth.  Nor  can  we  wholly  agree  with  those  who  regard  these 
minute  creatures  as  the  most  rudimentary  of  living  forms.  It  by 
no  means  follows  that  because  a  living  creature  is  small,  it  is 
therefore  exceedingly  simple  and  recent  in  the  sense  of  ancestry 
and  heredity. 


FORMS,  APPENDAGES  AND  FUNCTIONS  OF  CELLS  IN 
MULTICELLULAR  ORGANISMS 

It  is  of  interest  to  study  the  forms  and  functions  assumed  by 
cells  in  the  multicellular  organisms,  the  human  body  for  example, 
not  alone  as  showing  the  wonderful  plasticity  of  the  cell-of-life, 
but  as  an  augury  of  what  can  be  done  with  it  in  the  future. 

The  lowest,  simplest  forms  of  cells  are  globular;  but  when 
aggregated  in  multicellular  organisms,  subject  to  mechanical  in- 
fluences, cells  are  of  many  forms  and  sizes. 

Both  in  unicellular  and  multicellular  life,  too,  cells  are  found 
to  put  forth  numerous  appendages,  to  accomplish  nutrition  and 
locomotion,  communicate  with  their  fellows  and  unite  with  other 
cells  for  communal  labors. 

In  a  general  way  cells  may  be  said  to  have  an  outer  skin,  or 
membranous  envelope,  formerly  much  referred  to  as  the  cell  wall; 
but  this  is  not  always  present,  nor  actually  essential.  Often  it 
appears  to  be  that  outer  stratum  of  the  cytoplasm  which  has  be- 
come lifeless,  owing  to  destructive  external  influences,  but  having 
become  so,  assumes,  incidentally,  the  role  of  a  protective  covering. 
The  delicate,  sentient  metabolism  would,  indeed,  appear  to  need 
protection  as  well  as  insulation  from  the  external  world,  electrical 


88  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

insulation,  perhaps;  for  always  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  cell 
life  is  a  process,  insulated,  apart  and  by  itself;  that  the  cell  in 
order  to  be  a  living  self  must  be  thus  separate.  Otherwise  it 
would  not  be  a  self ;  nor  could  the  animal  and  human  self  other- 
wise result  from  an  organized  federation  of  cells. 

Sketched  with  a  pen,  as  we  write,  are  six  typical  forms  of  cells 
from  the  brain  and  nervous  system  of  a  human  subject,  magnified 
about  350  diameters.  The  first  is  what  may  be  termed  an  unde- 
veloped cell  from  one  of  the  second  deep  layers  of  the  cerebrum, 
frontal  convolution.  It  has  the  appearance  of  being  a  cell  not, 
or  not  as  yet,  very  actively  engaged  in  functions  pertaining  to  the 
personal  life;  and  hence  certain  observers  have  been  inclined  to 
rank  this  layer  as  a  reserve  layer,  from  embryonic  life,  which  may, 
possibly,  be  drawn  upon  for  more  active  service  later  in  life.  The 
suggestion  is  a  fanciful  one,  with  a  grain  of  truth  in  it,  perhaps. 
The  way  to  verify  it  will  be  to  examine  this  layer  from  a  young 
subject  in  comparison  with  that  from  an  aged  subject,  after  an 
arduous  lifetime,  to  ascertain  by  count,  through  the  thickness  of 
the  layer,  whether  the  number  of  cells  in  the  latter  is  markedly  less. 

The  second  cell  is  a  bipolar  cell,  such  as  is  found  in  great 
numbers  in  the  first  deep  layer  below  the  dendrites  or  multipolar 
cells  of  the  cerebral  cortex.  These  cells  put  forth  two  axial  proc- 
esses, one  at  each  pole. 

The  third  cell  is  a  typical  multipolar,  or  many-branched  cell, 
very  numerous  in  the  spinal  cord  and  in  various  parts  of  the  brain, 
and  in  nerve  ganglia.  These  cells  put  forth  from  four  to  fifty 
processes,  or  branches,  which  are  believed  to  be  largely  for  asso- 
ciation, by  sentient  contact,  with  other  cells,  and  also  to  facilitate 
nutrition.  At  least  one  process,  or  branch,  usually  makes  directly 
ofif  to  a  relatively  great  distance,  and  in  the  end,  after  numerous 
offshoots,  is  enclosed  with  others  in  a  sheathed  nerve  trunk.  This 
latter  branch  is  the  one  generally  termed  the  neuraxone,  axone,  or 
axis  cylinder  process. 

The  fourth  is  the  typical  dendrite,  or  tree  cell,  often  termed  the 
large  pyramidal  cell,  from  the  shape  of  the  cell  body.  It  sends  up 
a  plant-like  apical  stalk  to  a  relatively  great  height,  branching  to 
finer  and  finer  fibrils  in  mazy  arborizations ;  minor  sprouts  and 
fibrils  also  issue  from  other  portions  of  the  cell  body.     From  the 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED 


89 


base  of  each  cell,  too,  as  with  cells  of  the  third  class,  there  descends 
an  axone  which  at  length  enters  a  nerve  trunk  and  extends  to  dis- 
tant portions  of  the  organism. 

The  fifth  is  similar  to  the  dendrite,  yet  dififering  in  certain  minor 


*f-    JblMxLsXteL^f^    "tviiA  Ctli.  ^h-ay\\^ 


characteristics,  and  found  for  the  most  part  in  the  cerebellum  and 
not  in  the  cortex  cerebri.     This  cell  is  usually  called  the  Purkinje 
cell,  from  its  discoverer.     Like  the  dendrite,  it  sends  down  a  neur- 
axone,  but  smaller,  and  its  functions  are  believed  to  be  similar. 
The  sixth  is  often  termed  the  basket  cell,  and  sometimes  the 


90  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Spider  cell,  from  its  shape  and  branched  processes.  Strictly  speak- 
ing it  is  not  a  nerve  cell,  but  one  of  a  group  of  connective  tissue 
cells,  distributed  throughout  the  brain  and  spinal  cord  for  the 
purpose  of  supporting  and  sustaining  the  nobler  multipolar  cells  in 
position.  We  come  upon  it  constantly  when  examining  cells  of 
the  brain  and  cord.  Its  function  is  clearly  adjuvant;  and  to  this 
entire  group  the  general  name  of  neuroglia  has  been  given. 

As  a  rather  striking  illustration  of  the  truth  that  a  cell  is  a  cell, 
throughout  nature,  whatever  its  function  may  be,  whether  asso- 
ciated with  millions  of  others  in  the  highly  organized  multicell,  or 
living  an  independent  life  as  a  free-roaming  unicell,  it  is  of  in- 
terest to  compare  an  amoeba  (amoeba  radiosa),  generally  held 
to  be  one  of  the  simplest,  most  primitive  forms  of  cell  life,  with 
a  large  multipolar  cell  from  the  anterior  horn  of  the  spinal  cord 
of  man.  In  form,  at  least,  the  two  cells  resemble  each  other  so 
closely  as  to  suggest  a  common  origin  at  the  outset  of  life  on  the 
earth,  and  also  a  common  metabolism,  internally,  as  regards  bio- 
chemical activities. 

The  more  the  cell-of-life  is  studied  the  stronger  grows  the  con- 
viction that  what  at  first  seem  veritable  miracles  can  be  wrought 
W'ith  it.  ]\Iark  what  it  has  done  in  the  brain  of  the  bee.  or  the  ant. 
In  that  tiny  dot  of  living  matter,  not  as  large  as  a  pin  head,  there 
is  a  development  of  knowledge,  a  repositor}'  and  a  continuum  of 
heredity  w^hich  embraces  the  entire  science  of  aviation,  architec- 
ture, engineering,  economics,  offensive  and  defensive  w'arfare  and 
a  highly  developed  sociology. 

Throughout  unicellular  life,  too,  as  well  as  in  the  multicells,  we 
find  the  same  remarkable  evidences  of  capacity  for  adaptation  and 
transformation,  the  fresh  water  rhizopods,  for  example. 

Primordially,  the  cell-of-life  appears  to  have  nourished  itself, 
that  is  to  say,  obtained  its  food,  by  the  absorptive,  or  saprophytic 
method,  drawing  in  food  particles  from  without,  through  its  outer 
skin,  or  cell  wall.  The  tissue  cells  of  multicellular  organisms  — 
animals  and  plants  —  still  obtain  their  food  in  that  w^ay,  from  the 
blood  and  the  sap. 

Unorganized^  w'hen  living  a  free,  roving  life,  amoeboid  unicells, 
originally  saprophytic,  have  developed  various  ways  of  seizing  and 
ingesting  larger  food  particles,  also  smaller  unicells,  as  prey.    From 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED 


91 


their  substance  they  thrust  forth  a  great  variety  of  processes 
(pseudopodia)  both  for  locomotion  and  for  grasping  elusive  food. 
They  spread  nets,  or  webs,  spun  by  impulse  of  will  from  the  super- 


k 


^vt-ci-x.  J  ^jj-wiruo"* 


%^- 


ficial  substance  of  their  cell  bodies,  to  catch  and  enmesh  smaller 
unicells. 

Others  of  this  class  of  predatory  unicells  —  like  the  light-armed 
peltastae  of  ancient  armies  —  have  equipped  themselves  with  jave- 
lins, needle-like  darts,  which  they  eject  from  their  substance,  and 
hurl  to  considerable  distances  to  transfix  and  paralyze  their  prey 


92  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

or  their  enemies.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  they  over- 
whelm their  prey  or  their  enemies  with  flights  of  envenomed 
arrows,  since  often  the  one  thus  attacked  is  seen  to  sink  inert,  as 
if  paralyzed. 

In  response  to  hunger  and  will  power  there  has  developed  in 
these  originally  simple  amoeboid  cells,  chemico-sentient  apparatus 
not  only  for  transforming  alloyed  protoplasm  into  pointed,  de- 
tachable darts,  but  apparati^s  for  casting  these  with  relatively  great 
force ;  —  as  seen  in  individuals  of  raphidiophrys  and  heterophrys. 

Figure  3,  as  sketched,  gives  some  idea  of  the  v^ay  in  which  the 
pseudopodia  of  the  simpler  amoebae  have,  in  heterophrys,  devel- 
oped to  long  lance-like  cils,  projectable,  and  even  detachable  for 
casting  to  greater  distances. 

Along  the  larger  trunks  of  these  processes  flow  transformed 
currents  of  the  cell  cytoplasm  which  give  rise  to  needle-like  cils 
more  minute  than  threads  of  finest  spun  glass.  Under  stress  of 
hunger,  fear,  or  hate,  this  unicell  transforms  sentient  matter  to 
lances  and  forked  darts.  When  we  learn  how  this  is  done,  we 
shall  be  far  on  our  way  to  control  and  guide  the  cells  of  our  own 
tissues. 

The  point  to  which  attention  is  particularly  called  in  connection 
with  these  different  forms  and  types  of  the  cell-of-life,  is  its  in- 
trinsic capacity,  as  here  displayed,  to  transform  its  own  substance 
(cytoplasm)  and  adapt  it  to  various  uses;  and  this  as  bearing  on 
the  analogous  capacity  of  the  cells  in  the  animal  organism  for 
change  under  stress  of  the  z(fill  of  the  whole  organism.  In  a  word, 
it  shows  what  the  cell-of-life  can  do,  and  how  facile  a  substance 
for  transformation  is  this  marvelous  living  substance  which  we 
sometimes  call  "  protoplasm." 

No  longer  a  free,  roving  unicell,  seizing  its  food  in  the  turbid 
puddle,  but  associated  with  myriads  of  its  fellows  in  the  animal 
organism,  our  physiological  cell-of-life  takes  its  nourishment  from 
the  conduits  of  the  blood  stream,  beside  the  capillaries  of  which  it 
is  located  and  does  its  life  work.  A  million  other  cells  labor  con- 
jointly to  make  this  blood  plasma  the  highly  refined  nutriment  it 
is :  —  the  last  word,  under  nature,  in  the  line  of  cell  food.  It  is 
therefore  on  the  circulatory  apparatus  of  arteries,  arterioles  and 
capillaries,  with  their  associated  veins,  veinlets  and  lymphatics,  and 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  93 

on  this  refined  blood  plasma  flowing  swiftly  through  them,  that  we 
must  fix  our  attention  as  the  one  and  only  instrumentality  for 
reaching,  modifying  and  renewing  the  living  substance  of  the  cell. 


The  blood  stream,  foul,  or  pure  and  renovating-,  is  our  sole  means 
and  vehicle  of  cell  nutrition.  On  nerve  fibrils  we  depend  for  inci- 
tation  and  stimulation  by  will  power  as  directed  by  the  brain;  but 
the  blood  plasma  and  circulatory  apparatus  are  our  sole  means 
of  renewal  of  substance. 


94 


IMMORTAL    LIFE 


Figure  4  represents,  in  diagram,  the  position  and  relation,  as 
regards  nutrition,  of  the  large  multipolar  cells  of  tlie  spiiial  cord 


to  an  arteriole  twig  and  capillaries.     Through  the  arterioles  and 
capillaries   flows  the  blood  stream,  bearing  with   it   the   red  and 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED 


95 


white  blood  corpuscles,  and  the  plasma  which  alone  the  cells  attract 
to  themselves  and  absorb.  It  has  been  held  that  the  plasma  seeps 
through  the  walls  of  the  capillaries,  also  that  these  walls  contain 
minute  stomata  through  which  the  cells  have  the  power  to  suck 
the  plasma.  Certain  fibrils  from  the  cells  appear  to  touch  —  per- 
haps tap  —  the  capillary  walls.     Take  the  case  of  a  muscle  cell, 


crv 


O^aJIAt,  q^    ^fci_ 


»v^_    (Ttxjt^ 


-Jp*^ 


Ai^^^orC. 


the  function  of  which  is  alternately  to  contract  and  elongate, 
thereby  producing  mechanical  movements.  The  muscle  cell  is 
nourished  not  differently  from  those  of  brain  or  cuticle;  but  at  the 
call  and  behest  of  the  whole  organism  for  contraction  and  elonga- 
tion, we  find  the  living  substance  responding  after  a  manner, 
sketched  in  Figure  5,  which  represents  a  muscle  cell  at  two  stages 
of  contraction,  a  first,  or  initial  stage,  and  a  maximum  stage ;  the 
relaxation,  or  elongation  stage  being  the  same,  conversely,  accom- 
panied by  an  acid  chemical  reaction. 


g6  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

A  portion  of  every  such  muscle  cell,  one  side  of  it,  consists  of 
undifferentiated,  granular  protoplasm  (cytoplasm)  containing  the 
nucleus;  that  is  to  say,  the  living  matter  of  this  part  of  the  cell 
still  retains  the  original  character  of  all  cells  not  specialized  by 
the  needs  of  the  whole  organism  and  devoted  to  particular  uses 
and  functions.  This  is  the  part  to  which  self -life,  growth,  etc.,  is 
now-  restricted. 

In  the  other  part,  on  the  other  side  of  it,  or  midway  through 
the  cell,  we  find  an  altered  specialized  tract  of  protoplasm,  where 
the  living  substance  is  arranged  in  filaments,  lying  parallel  to  each 
other.  These  filaments  are  capable  of  contraction,  at  an  impulse 
from  the  other  part  of  the  cell.  To  this  specialized  part  of  the 
cell  protoplasm  the  name  of  myoplasm  has  been  given. 

After  embryonic  life  this  cell  devotes  its  powers  not  to  multi- 
plying itself  by  fission  and  division,  as  is  the  wont  of  unicells, 
but  to  the  production  of  dynamic  energy  for  the  common  good 
of  the  confraternity  of  cells  in  the  w^hole  organism.  It  is  a  fine 
and  very  suggestive  example  of  what  the  cell-of-life  has  show^n 
itself  able  to  do  under  stimulus  of  a  certain  definite  sort. 

In  like  manner  a  brain  cell  devotes  itself  to  the  process  of 
thought,  or  a  gland  cell  to  the  production  of  saliva,  or  of  pepsin 
ferments.  At  the  call  of  the  common  good,  too,  this  brain  cell 
or  this  muscle  cell  stands  steady  in  its  place  and  prolongs  its  indi- 
vidual cell  life  from  the  few  days,  or  hours,  of  the  original,  rap- 
idly-multiplying unicell,  to  fifty,  eighty,  or  a  hundred  years.  Won- 
derful data  for  thought  and  hope  lie  in  these  facts  of  cell  life. 
First,  we  have  need  to  study  and  analyze  the  stimuli  w^hich  impel 
the  cell  to  these  grand  feats  of  adaptation,  and  second,  to  produce 
and  use  them  at  will. 

The  muscle  cell  is  in  truth  a  grand  example  of  wdiat  a  cell  may 
come  to  do  in  response  to  the  demand  made  upon  it  by  the  w^hole  or- 
ganism of  w^hich  it  is  a  loyal  subject.  What  we  here  behold  is  elec- 
trons, innumerable,  organized  and  bending  their  efforts,  we  may 
even  say  their  wills,  harmoniously  and  in  unison,  to  accomplish  one 
great  purpose.  Even  so  the  star-suns  of  the  galaxies  of  space 
bend  their  united  efforts  to  turn  the  wheel  of  the  sidereal  universe, 
at  the  call  and  behest  of  the  cosmic  common  good.  It  all  moves 
from  the  sentient  side,  in  the  cell;  or  in  the  Milky  Way. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  97 

It  is  in  the  differentiations  of  cell  life,  however,  in  special  organs 
and  functions  of  animal  and  plant  life  that  the  capacity  of  the  cell 
for  change  and  perfection  is  most  strikingly  displayed.  The  eye, 
for  example.  Here  is  an  intricate  illustration  of  what  each  cell, 
or  group  of  cells,  can  do  and  make,  when  stress  or  incitation  is 
given  it  to  modify  its  life  and  its  cell  products  to  certain  uses. 
\Mthin  this  globe  of  the  eye  we  have  cells  which  make  glass,  both 
transparent,  colored  and  semi-opaque;  cells  which  secrete  clear 
liquids  and  also  jellies,  cells  which  make  black  pigment  sheets,  and 
also  the  toughest  of  fiber,  and  which  put  forth  and  maintain  highly 
sensitized  fibrils,  cells  which  stand  together  co-operatively  to  pro- 
duce a  matchless  mechanism  of  muscle  fibers,  cells  which  trans- 
form their  substance  to  cilia  and  to  hair  for  protection  of  the  more 
delicate  surfaces,  and  cells  which  constantly  secrete  soothing  fluids 
for  laving  and  moistening  the  entire  apparatus.  All  this  has  been 
done  by  the  cell-of-life  in  response  to  the  call  of  the  whole  organ- 
ism for  light.  And  the  point  of  interest  here  is  the  transformation 
which  the  cell  has  shoAvn  itself  capable  of. 

In  short,  we  come  to  learn  that  the  cell  is  in  very  truth  the  pro- 
teus  of  our  world  of  life.  As  regards  longevity  it  may  live  a  day, 
a  week,  as  in  unicellular  life;  or  in  the  muscle,  or  brain,  of  multi- 
cellular hfe,  it  may  —  if  the  need  of  the  organized  life  of  w^hich 
it  is  a  unit  demands  it  —  live  fifty  years,  or  even  for  two  centuries. 
A  cell  lifetime,  indeed,  may  be  long  or  short  as  the  cell  itself  wills, 
or  the  will  of  the  organism  of  which  it  is  a  part,  stimulates  it.  It 
may  be  ephemeral  or  practically  deathless. 

As  another  mar^•elous  instance  of  what  the  cell-of-life  may  be 
impelled  to  do,  at  the  continued  behest  of  the  whole  organism, 
take  the  case  of  a  gland  cell,  lodged  in  trabcciila  at  the  root  of 
a  fang  in  the  jaw  of  the  rattlesnake,  or  the  cobra.  Here  we  have 
cells  differing  little  in  appearance  from  the  cells  of  the  parotid, 
submaxillar}',  or  other  glands,  and  like  them  drawing  nourishment 
from  the  same  blood  plasma,  yet  this  one  manufactures  and  ex- 
cretes through  the  gland  duct,  when  suddenly  pressed,  a  poison 
so  deadly  that  half  a  minim  of  it  will  destroy  a  million  cell  lives. 
Yet  in  some  manner  at  present  unknown  to  us,  this  gland  cell  con- 
trives to  make  and  keep  separate  from  its  nucleus  and  the  remain- 
der of  its  cytoplasm  this  potent  weapon  of  death. 


98  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Analogous  to  this  are  many  plant  cells  which  manufacture  acids, 
acrid  juices  and  gums ;  analogous,  too,  are  the  hepatic  cells  of  the 
animal  organism  which  make  and  excrete  gall. 

Not  only  is  the  cell-of-life  able  to  assume  wholly  diverse  func- 
tions, but  even  in  as  extreme  a  case  as  that  of  cells  removed  from 
the  animal  organism  in  which  they  have  been  developed  during  a 
thousand  generations  of  ancestral  life,  these  cells  when  thus  re- 
moved, and  if  nourished  in  favoring  media,  adequately  protected 
from  outside  infection  and  extremes  of  temperature,  live  on  for 
weeks,  or  months,  and  probably  would  do  so  indefinitely.  It  is 
solely  a  question  of  nutrition  and  protection. 

For  example,  a  bit  of  heart  muscle,  containing  the  specialized, 
peculiar  muscle  cells  of  that  organ,  has  been  kept  alive  and  pulsat- 
ing for  three  months.  This  is  exactly  what  experiments  here  had 
led  us  to  infer,  to  wit,  that  the  cell-of-life  hves  by  virtue  of  a 
sentient  impulse  and  vital  processes  inside  itself,  and  will  go  on 
doing  so  as  long  as  it  is  nourished  adequately  and  protected  from 
"  death  "  by  the  outside  world.  Death  comes  to  it,  in  the  animal 
organism,  because  in  an  aging  organism  it  is  no  longer  nourished 
sufficiently  and  protected  from  septic  attacks,  i.  e.,  microbes  and 
poisons.  In  an  aging,  shrunken  organism,  as  that  of  man  at 
eighty,  adequate  nourishment  no  longer  reaches  the  cells  through 
the  blocked  and  contracted  capillaries,  and  unremoved  waste  prod- 
ucts, breeding  bacteria,  subject  them  to  a  constantly  growing  hand- 
icap to  survival. 

Another  point  of  great  interest  and  significance  in  these  experi- 
ments with  heart  muscle  cells,  above  referred  to,  is  the  fact  that 
when  removed  from  the  organism  and  placed  in  media  suitable  for 
nutrition,  these  cells  proliferate,  i.  e.,  increase  in  number  by  growth 
and  division,  thereby  resuming  a  more  primitive  function  of  the 
cell-of-life,  one  which  they  would  never  again  have  exhibited,  had 
they  remained  in  situ,  within  the  heart  organ  whence  they  were 
taken  for  the  experiment.  This  fact,  incidentally  observed,  is  of 
an  importance  which  will  loom  largely  in  the  future. 

Yet  another  fact  or  principle  which  ought  not  to  be  lost  sight 
of,  is  the  tenacity  with  which  these  cells  from  the  heart  muscle 
hold  to  their  function  of  pulsation.  Removed  from  their  place  in 
the  beating  heart,  and  placed  in  fluid   media   inside  a  glass  jar. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  99 

there  would  appear  to  be  no  longer  organic  stress,  or  reason  why 
they  should  go  on  pulsating,  yet  they  do  so  for  months,  thereby 
affording  most  reassuring  evidence  of  cell  fidelity  to  an  assumed 
function,  a  loyalty  of  allegiance  to  the  animal  organism  from 
which  it  has  been  transplanted. 

Incidentally,  however,  it  was  observed  that  cells  of  this  bit  of 
transplanted  heart  tissue,  cells  which  lay  on  the  outside  of  it  and 
most  exposed  to  demoralizing  influences,  so  to  speak,  changed  to, 
or  rather  in  proliferating  gave  birth  to  a  species  of  amoeboid 
non-pulsating  cells,  as  if,  under  stress  of  hard,  untoward  condi- 
tions, the  heart-muscle  cell  were  displaying  a  tendency  to  revert 
to  that  simple  primordial  cell  from  which  all  multicellular  life  has 
in  time  developed. 

Here  it  may  be  well  to  state  definitely,  that,  in  all  that  follows, 
we  are  dealing  with  the  lives,  the  psychic  side,  of  unicells  and 
multicells,  rather  than  with  the  forms  of  life;  and  hence  that  we 
are  not  entering  upon  discussions  of  natural  selection,  descent, 
variation  or  adaptation,  in  either  the  Lamarckian  or  the  Darwin- 
ian sense;  nor  yet  of  the  opposed  theories  of  species  formation, 
like  the  mutationsthcorie  of  De  Vries  and  others.  The  general 
theory  of  the  evolution  of  life  on  the  earth  is  accepted  as  a  matter 
of  course ;  but  it  is  rather  with  the  psychic  side  of  such  evolution 
that  we  are  now  concerned. 

It  was  an  evolution,  covering  millions  of  years,  but  it  went 
on  after  nature's  purblind  fashion,  until  all  the  varied  flora  and 
fauna  of  the  earth's  multicellular  life  have  come  out  of  it. 

Signal  advantages,  we  say,  resulted  from  such  united  life.  To 
unicellular  life,  therefore,  multicellular  organization  has  proved  a 
species  of  natural  salvation.  It  has  been  the  unicell's  upward  way 
to  a  kind  of  unicellular  immortality,  and  as  such  is  of  profound 
practical  significance  to  the  biologist  and  the  student  of  social 
science  as  pointing  the  way  to  prolonged  life  for  man,  from  com- 
munal effort. 

The  microscope  proved  that  the  human  organism  was  a  vast, 
highly  organized,  consentient  confederation  of  cells;  that  it  lives 
only  in  its  cell  life;  that  it  has  no  other  life  than  comes  from  the 
harmonious  confluence  of  the  cell  lives;  and  that  the  far  ancestry 
of  these  component  cells  was  the  unicellular  life  of  the  ancient 


lOO  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

earth.  Yet  the  embryology  of  man  shows  us  that  all  the  tissue 
cells  of  the  organism  issue  forth  and  develop  from  a  single  ovum, 
composed  of  as  few,  possibly,  as  two  cells  emanating  from  the 
bodies  of  the  parents.  How  and  by  what  physiological  process  the 
semina  of  millions  of  tissue  cells  in  an  animal  organism  are  em- 
bodied, or  garnered,  in  these  few  embryonic  cells  is  still  a  matter 
of  research.  However  accomplished,  it  is  distinctly  a  process,  or 
achievement,  of  multicellular  life,  one  which  developed  after  the 
unicellular  colony  took  on  permanent  form  and  perfected  its  or- 
ganization.    The  details  of  it  remain  to  be  demonstrated. 

Does  each  cell  of  the  animal  organism  fructify  and  secrete  ex- 
ceedingly minute  scuiina  which  are  attracted  to  and  garnered  in 
the  cells  of  the  reproductive  organs  and  afterwards  develop  in  the 
embryo;  or  does  the  personal  aura  —  the  soul  —  of  the  plant, 
animal  or  man  so  impress  itself  on  the  reproductive  cells  that  by 
virtue  of  their  mnemonic  faculty  they  remember,  imitate  and  re- 
produce the  parents  in  the  child? 

Many  months  have  been  spent  studying  the  lives  of  plants  and 
animals,  considered  as  organized  unions  of  cell  life;  or  in  other 
words,  the  phytopsyche  (plant  soul)  and  histopsyche  (tissue  soul) 
as  so  many  consentient  unions  of  the  cytopsyche  (cell  soul).  It 
became  evident  that  by  means  of  sentient  contact,  cell  with  cell, 
two  or  more  cells  —  a  hundred,  a  million  —  may  coalesce,  sen- 
tiently,  and  form  one  larger  communal  life  about  a  common  axis 
of  self-consciousness;  in  fact,  that  the  lives  of  all  the  multicells 
are  such  organized  unions  of  the  lesser  lives  of  their  component 
cells.  This  composite  origin  of  the  human  soul  was,  indeed,  a 
novel  discovery  as  in  contrast  with  former  conceptions. 


THE  NEURO-ELECTRONIC  CIRCULATION 

When  we  speak  of  the  organic  circulation,  what  is  generally 
meant  is  the  circulation  of  the  blood  and  lymph,  with  its  arterial, 
venous  and  lymphatic  apparatus.  No  other  circulation  is  recog- 
nized, either  in  anatomy  or  physiology. 

There  is  another,  however,  the  most  important  of  all,  the  one 
most  essential  to  animal  life  and  personality,  since  by  no  other 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  lOI 

agency  can  a  multicellular  organism  be  actuated  and  its  many 
millions  of  separate  cell  lives  unified  in  the  one  greater  self-con- 
scious life.  By  means  of  this  circulation  alone  is  the  multitudinous 
cell  psyche  united,  consolidated,  held  together,  and  incited  as  the 
animal  self  or  soul. 

So  little  is  this  latter  circulation  known,  or  recognized,  that  it 
has  as  yet  received  no  name,  no  descriptive  designation.  Pro- 
visionally, until  a  better  designation  is  found,  it  may  be  called  the 
electronic  circulation,  or  better,  perhaps,  the  neuro-electronic  cir- 
culation, since  electrons  enter  into  the  composition  of  the  substance 
which  circulates. 

And  here  it  would  be  well  if  the  reader  could  glance  at  two 
anatomical  charts,  one  of  the  blood  vessels,  the  arteries,  the  veins 
and  blood  circulatory  apparatus  generally,  the  other  of  the  nervous 
system,  meaning  the  cerebro-spinal  system  of  afferent  and  efferent 
nerves,  and  nerve  filaments,  as  minute  as  shown  by  charts.  Even 
a  casual  glance  at  the  two  sets  of  bodily  apparatus  will  convey  an 
idea  as  to  the  analogy  of  the  two  circulations  —  the  one  so  well 
known,  the  other  of  which  so  little  is  known,  as  yet. 

But,  as  in  the  case  of  the  blood  circulatory  apparatus,  no  illus- 
tration as  a  whole  can  depict,  either  the  capillaries,  or  the  far  more 
minute  terminal  nerve  fibrils  which  reach  the  cells  and  hold  cell 
to  cell  in  sentient  communication ;  since  this  is  below  the  ken  of 
the  human  eye,  and  a  matter  of  microscopic  demonstration. 

Whereas  the  blood  and  lymph  currents  circulate  in  tubes  and 
tubules,  the  neuro-electronic  circulation  is  maintained  through  in- 
sulated cables  which  divide  into  smaller  and  smaller  lines,  appar- 
ently sohd,  composed  of  an  organic  substance  which  it  is  the  func- 
tion of  certain  cells  to  secrete  and  keep  in  continuity.  To  the 
neiu-o-electronic  fluid  —  if  fluid  it  may  be  called — the  nerve  trunks 
and  nerve  fibrils  are  as  pervious  as  telegraph  wires  to  electric  cur- 
rents. Instead  of  being  of  copper  or  iron,  however,  the  nerve 
cylinders  are  of  complex  chemical  composition,  of  greater  but 
slower  conductivity.  The  neuro-electronic  current  appears,  indeed, 
to  enter  and  actuate  first  one  group  of  chemical  molecules  in  the 
nerve  trunk,  then  another,  and  to  be  accompanied  by  sentient  as 
well  as  physical  activities  of  the  transmitting  substance,  a  sub- 
stance which  cannot  better  be  described  than  as  being  a  kind  of 
alloyed  protoplasm,  not  so  greatly  alloyed,  or  "  fixed."  as  not  to  be 


I02  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

Still  semi-sentient.  Like  striped  muscle  fiber  it  is  an  alloy  of  cell 
cytoplasm. 

Two  phases  of  the  neuro-electronic  circulation  are  incidentally 
exhibited  in  an  animal  organism,  namely,  a  sensory  phase,  and  a 
motor  phase,  the  one  setting  inward  to  the  center  of  self-conscious- 
ness, the  other  setting  outward  under  incitation  of  will  power,  to 
direct  and  incite  the  mechanical  apparatus  of  the  body. 

For  the  most  part,  however,  the  neuro-electronic  circulation  — 
like  that  of  the  blood  —  goes  on  subconsciously  and  constantly, 
both  during  sleep  and  waking  hours.  It  is  largely  a  function  of 
the  cell  life,  below  the  ken  of  the  cerebral  self-consciousness,  and 
is  as  yet  an  unentered  field  of  investigation  —  one  of  grand  pos- 
sibihties. 

So  far  as  our  present  knowledge  of  the  neuro-electronic  circu- 
lation goes,  the  substance  which  circulates  consists  of  emanations 
from  the  cells  of  the  entire  organism,  and  passes  to  and  fro  along 
the  inner  thread  of  the  nerves,  inciting  first  one  group  of  mole- 
cules, then  another.  Each  group,  in  turn,  incites  that  next  it, 
and  thus  the  impulse  goes  forward  to  the  muscle,  gland,  or  epithe- 
lial surface,  to  be  influenced. 

Apparently,  each  molecule,  or  group  of  molecules,  in  the  core 
of  the  nerve,  gives  up,  as  the  impulse  travels,  certain  of  its  free 
electrons,  thus  forming  something  analogous  to  an  ordinary  elec- 
tric current.  We  know,  at  least,  that  electricity  is  present,  and 
appears  to  be  generated  as  the  impulse  moves  along  the  nerve. 
Yet  the  phenomena  are  not  a  little  complicated ;  —  somewhat  as  if 
a  line  of  a  thousand  persons,  stationed  half  a  mile  apart,  connected 
by  telephone,  were  passing  a  message  from  one  to  another  for  a 
distance  of  five  hundred  miles,  to  still  another  person,  who,  on  re- 
ceiving it,  would  be  incited  to  wield  an  ax  or  turn  a  lever.  For 
this  reason,  probably,  nerve  messages  are  transmitted  slowly,  com- 
pared with  electric  messages  through  wire.  Something  more  than 
a  current  of  electrons  is  set  up.  An  emanation  from  the  cells 
accompanies  it,  an  emanation  which  has  sometimes  been  termed 
vim,  virtus  and,  more  loosely,  vital  energy  and  vital  power.  No 
recognized  term  has  been  given  it,  because  its  nature,  character  and 
functions  have  as  yet  been  scarcely  recognized.  In  the  substance 
which  circulates,  the  electron  would  seem  to  be  what  the  red  and 
white  blood-corpuscles  are  in  the  plasma  of  the  blood-stream. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED 


103 


Fig-ure  6  attempts  to  illustrate  the  two  circulations,  conjointly, 
in  glandular  tissue  like  that  of  the  pancreas,  the  parotid,  or  the 
thyroid  gland.  An  arterial  twig  with  its  capillaries  bears  nourish- 
ment to  the  cells  whose  function  it  is  to  secrete  certain  "  juices," 
necessary  to  digestion,  or  the  organic  well-being.  With  the  arteri- 
ole, or  often  so,  enters  a  small  efferent  nerve  trunk,  branching  into 
nerve  fibrils  which  ramify  among  the  gland  cells.     By  virtue  of 


Sh^tUt^ 


m^    ct>t-CL-nr       /T^totdlo  (Jv»»\»*CCir* 


the  current,  maintained  in  the  nerve  and  its  fibrils,  the  cells  are 
held  in  function  through  life  and  stimulated  to  activity  as  required. 
Deprived  of  this  constant  neuro-electronic  current  —  if  the  nerve 
were  cut  —  the  cells  soon  relapse  from  their  proper  organic  duty. 
degenerate  and  become  desuete,  or  even  run  riot  in  new  growths. 
It  is  the  neuro-electronic  circulation  alone  which  holds  all  the  man^• 
groups  of  somatic  cells  in  function  and  renders  animal  life  possible. 
No  efifort  has  been  made  in  this  pen  sketch  to  represent  either 
the  venous  capillaries,  or  the  afferent  nerves.  These  latter  are  the 
reverse  phase  of  the  neuro-electronic  circulation. 


I04  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Through  the  neuro-electronic  circulation  which  reaches  it  along 
the  nerve  fibril,  there  comes  this  mandate  so  masterful  that  the 
life  of  the  cell  bends  to  it  constantly,  as  the  worker-bee  labors  in 
the  hive,  the  skilled  artisan  in  the  factory.  It  is  the  voice  —  the 
sentient  aura  —  of  the  whole  organism,  the  whole  organized  civi- 
lization of  the  nation  and  the  race.  That  voice,  that  sentient  aura, 
"'  circulates  "  by  means  of  the  nerve  filaments. 

In  yet  another  particular  the  neuro-electronic  circulation  differs 
from  the  sanguineous.  The  substance,"  current,  or  medium,  which 
circulates,  is  an  emanation  from  the  cells,  especially  the  cells  of 
the  brain  and  nervous  system ;  its  origin  is  intracellular ;  and  its 
efferent  and  afferent  nerve  fibrils  —  which  correspond  to  the  arte- 
rial and  venous  capillaries  of  the  sanguineous  circulation  —  are 
cell  processes,  namely,  fibrils  put  forth  by  the  cells  themselves. 
These  in  the  case  of  the  brain  dendrites  and  multipolar  cells  of  the 
spinal  cord,  consist  of  associated  arborizations,  and  the  so-called 
axis-cylinder  processes,  which,  issuing  from  the  base  of  each  cell, 
unite  with  others  and  pass  into  the  larger  nerve  trunks. 

The  neuro-electronic  current  is  thus  a  combination  between  cell 
and  cell,  or  in  other  words,  the  circulating  medium  of  the  asso- 
ciated cells.  While  the  circulation  of  the  blood  plasma  may  be 
termed  intercellular,  the  neuro-electronic  is  intracellular,  and  thus 
connected  with  the  sentio-chemism  of  life  itself. 

The  idea  to  be  conveyed  may  be  assisted,  perhaps,  by  a  few 
pen-strokes  —  Figure  7  —  illustrating  the  relations  of  four  pyram- 
idal, or  dendritic  cells  of  the  human  cerebrum,  and  of  the  multi- 
polar cells  of  the  brain  and  spinal  cord,  generally.  The  cells  and 
cell  processes  are  sketched  black,  somewhat  as  they  look  when 
stained  by  Golgi's  corrosive  sublimate  method,  with  no  attempt  to 
represent  the  neuroglia,  or  the  capillaries  of  the  blood  circulatory 
system. 

The  neuro-electronic  circulation,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  case  of 
these  four  dendrites,  is  through  the  cells,  and  from  them  outward, 
by  means  of  the  axis-cylinder  process,  or  neuraxone,  to  the  muscles 
of  the  mechanical  apparatus  of  the  organism. 

With  no  little  propriety,  therefore,  the  neuro-electronic  circula- 
tion might  be  termed  the  sentient  or  subjective  circulation.  It 
comes  from  the  life-side  of  matter. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED 


105 


Permit  the  repetition  here  of  the  cardinal  fact  tone  aj^:  the 
neuro-electronic  circulation.  It  is  .through  the  cell-of-life,  not 
around  it;  and  the  motive  power  which  causes  it  to  circulate  is 
the  will  power  of  the  cell :  that  will  power  which  emanates  directly 


%  7. 

Oay^^CS  cP^Zc     6o^^3^ 


V 


1/ 


from  the  sentient  life  of  the  cell.  The  vehicle  of  it  appears  to  be 
currents  of  electrons.  The  idea  now  held  at  this  laboratory  is  that 
the  essential  element  of  it  is  an  emanation  from  the  life-side  of 
the  cell,  superadded  to  the  electron,  modifying,  or  otherwise  affect- 
ing, its  frequency,  rhythm,  or  even  its  internal  character. 


I06  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

It  is  not  likely  that  our  present  methods  of  staining  and  exam- 
ination bring  out  the  finer  fibrils  of  the  arborizations  of  the  cells, 
but  only  the  relatively  coarser,  grosser  portions.  The  cortex  cere- 
bri of  man  and  the  higher  animals  is  a  veritable  maze  of  these 
fibrils,  developed  apparently  for  association  and  affiliation,  cell  with 
cell,  that  each  may  sense  what  goes  on  in  the  others.  Whether 
the  fibrils  of  different  cells  touch,  join  and  anastamose,  one  to  an- 
other, is  a  matter  of  dispute  and  discussion.  In  some  situations 
cells  appear  actually  thus  to  coalesce  with  other  cells,  but  certainly 
not  as  a  rule.  Each  appears  to  preserve  and  maintain  its  own 
individuality  intact.  What  strengthens  this  latter  view  is  the  pres- 
ence of  numerous  "  buds,"  so  called,  or  nodules  of  living  matter, 
in  the  arborizations,  which  are  conjectured  to  serve  as  tiny  ac- 
cumulators in  the  sentient  circulation. 

In  any  sketch  of  this  kind  it  is  quite  impossible  to  depict  the 
length  of  the  axis-cylinder  processes,  or  neuraxones,  which  descend 
to  relatively  enormous  distances,  through  layer  after  layer  of  fusi- 
form, or  nuclear  cells.  Often  they  are  seen  to  communicate  with 
each  other  by  means  of  lateral  offshoots,  thus  maintaining  com- 
plete sentient  and,  perhaps,  electronic  tension.  Ultimately  they 
join  other  axones  and  are  combined  in  the  sheathed  nerves  which 
extend  to  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  organism.  Altogether,  it  is 
the  most  wonderful  mechanism  in  creation. 


HUMAN   PERSONALITY 

ITS  COMPOSITE  AND  DISSOLUBLE  NATURE 

Biological  science  places  the  long-debated  problem  of  human 
personality  under  new  lights. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  here  to  enter  upon  an  exposition  of 
the  "  cell  doctrine,"  or  point  out  that  the  human  body  is  an 
organized  union  of  physiological  cells,  nor  iterate  the  evidences  of 
the  evolution  of  life.  We  begin,  therefore,  with  the  general  state- 
ment, that  the  human  body,  as  we  inherit  it  from  our  ancestors,  is 
a  vastly  organized  association  of  cell  life,  each  cell  a  small  organ- 
ism, guided  by  a  lowly  intelligence  which  stands  to  it  as  mind. 
The  present  functions  of  the  tissue  cell  of  the  animal  body,  as  we 
observe  them,  do  not  imply  a  notable  individual  exercise  or  display 
of  cell  intelligence;  such  exercise  of  intelligence,  however,  is 
potential  in  every  cell,  was  once  displayed  by  the  ancestry  of  that 
cell,  and  might  probably  again  be  called  into  use,  if  the  conditions 
of  its  environment  were  altered  and  demanded  it. 

In  brief,  the  tissue  cell  is  like  an  artisan  who  has  so  learned 
his  trade  and  has  worked  so  long  in  the  same  factory,  making 
the  same  kind  of  goods,  that  he  now  works  with  little  mental 
effort,  because  it  is  not  required;  yet  the  capacity  for  other  lines 
of  work  and  thought  still  survives  in  him  in  some  degree,  although 
he  would  very  likely  starve,  or  perish,  if  cast  suddenly  forth 
into  the  wilderness.  If  the  transition  from  his  factory  and  his 
habitual  food  and  labor  were  made  gradual,  he  would  adapt  him- 
self to  the  changed  conditions. 

We  are  speaking  now  of  muscle,  bone,  or  gland  cells,  in  short, 
of  any  and  all  of  the  thirty  orders  of  tissue  cells,  save  one.  The 
intelligence  of  that  one  has  not  been  as  much  restricted  bv  its 
appointed  task.  We  refer,  of  course,  to  that  order,  or  genus  of 
cells  which  appear  as  brain  and  spinal  cord,  or  the  nervous  sys- 
tem as  a  whole. 

107 


I08  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

It  is  with  this  wonderful  group  of  cehs,  the  neurons,  that  we 
have  to  deal  in  the  vexed  question  of  human  personality  (per- 
sonal identity,  self-consciousness,  "soul"),  and  incidentally  to 
inquire  whether  this  human  personality  is  detachable  from  the 
organism  or  not. 

We  are  not  here  understood  as  affirming  that  the  cells  of  the 
nervous  system  are  the  only  cells  of  the  organism  concerned  in 
human  personality,  not  even  when  this  group  is  extended  to  in- 
clude the  sympathetic  system.  Every  group  of  cells  in  the  animal 
body  is  faintly  and  in  some  minor  degree  apparent  in  the  sub- 
conscious human  intelligence.  All  enter  into  and  contribute  to 
that  great  sea  of  feeling  which  we  term  the  sub-conscious  mind. 
Physiologists  have  described  a  sixth  sense  which  they  term  the 
muscular  sense  —  the  indistinct  sensory  representation  of  the  vast 
group  of  muscle  cells  in  the  personality.  A  glance  at  the  organic 
mechanism  is  sufficient  to  show  that  these  cells  and  groups  of  cells 
can  have  but  a  secondary,  or  reflex  representation ;  a  faint  twice- 
reflected  sense,  like  earth-shine  on  the  unlighted  segment  of  the 
moon.  For  muscle  and  gland  cells  form  groups  by  themselves,  not 
interlaced  with  the  neurons  and  having  no  interlacing  processes, 
being  only  reported,  if  we  may  use  that  word  in  this  sense,  to  the 
neuron  group  by  means  of  immensely  long  filaments  which  the  latter 
have  sent  forth.  In  fact,  all  those  vast  groups  of  cells  in  muscle, 
bone,  and  gland  are,  as  far  as  the  human  personality  is  concerned, 
but  so  many  outlying,  alien  provinces  of  an  empire,  controlled  and 
stimulated  to  action  from  the  central  capital,  but  only  reflexly  and 
faintly  symbiotic  with  it. 

The  manner  in  which  personality  —  intellect  and  mind  —  fell 
to  the  lot  and  became  the  task  of  the  neuron  group,  is  now  ap- 
parent and  can  be  demonstrated.  A  trace  of  it  appears  even  in  the 
zoaria  of  pnlyzoa.  Something  like  an  incipient  nervous  system 
exists  in  bristatella  niucedo  and  in  kiuetoskias  where  a  colony  of 
unicells  is  seen  to  act  as  an  individual,  by  transmission  of  impulses 
from  cell  to  cell  to  ensure  simultaneous  action  to  a  certain  end  on 
the  part  of  all  the  cells.  The  same  is  observed  in  the  volvocine 
colonies. 

At  this  early  stage  of  differentiation  of  function,  any  cell  of  the 
colony  may  act  as  a  brain  or  nerve  cell.  The  capacity  was  inher- 
ent in  all  cells  at  the  outset  of  multicellulnr  life.     One  cell,  living 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  IO9 

alone,  may  do  all  that  any  multicellular  organism  can  do,  on  a 
small  scale.  But  in  a  colony  of  unicells,  particularly  in  a  large 
colony,  certain  cells,  on  account  of  their  outer  or  inner  location  in 
the  colony,  come  habitually  to  do  certain  things  and  assume  certain 
functions.  Those  on  the  outside  unite  to  propel  the  colony  onward 
toward  food;  those  on  the  inside  deal  with  the  food  after  it  is 
seized  and  ingested;  and  there  come  to  be  those  which  take  it  upon 
themselves  to  spy  food,  or  to  scent  it  at  a  distance,  in  a  word,  to 
act  as  eyes,  ears,  and  nose  for  the  colony.  But  to  convey  what 
these  cells  saw,  or  scented,  for  the  benefit  of  the  colony,  to  other 
cells,  those  for  example  which  propel  the  colony,  it  was  necessary 
that  certain  intermediate  cells,  or  lines  of  cells,  should  act  as 
carriers  of  this  intelligence  and  pass  it  on  from  cell  to  cell,  and 
here  we  have  the  origin  of  a  nerve  —  a  line  of  cells  passing  intel- 
ligence to  the  other  cells.  In  this  necessity  of  the  many-celled 
colony  we  find  the  beginning  of  the  function  of  nerve  and,  ulti- 
mately, of  brain.  For  very  soon  the  need  of  a  common  center  to 
which  the  conveyed  intelligence  from  without  could  be  brought, 
would  make  itself  felt.  Certain  cells  would  be  impelled  by  the 
common  want  to  take  up  the  function  of  estimating  these  con- 
veyed impulses,  whether  faint,  or  intense  and  imperative,  of  esti- 
mating and  responding  to  them.  Thus  somewhere  along  the  incip- 
ient nerve  line  a  ner^-e  ganglion  would  be  developed  from  cells 
which,  under  other  circumstances  of  the  colony's  needs,  might 
have  become  locomotive  cells  or  gland  cells.  For  it  is  the  many 
common  wants  of  the  cell  union  which  have  forced  the  assumption 
of  different  functions  upon  different  tracts  of  cells.  We  observe, 
first,  a  condition  in  which  a  cell  is  compelled  to  feel  the  feeling  of 
another  cell.  The  medium  or  agency  of  transmitting  feeling  in 
this  case  is  probably  an  actual  current  of  corpuscles.  Excited  to 
action  by  this  received  sensation,  the  intermediate  cell  transmits 
the  sensation  to  another  contiguous  cell ;  this  latter  in  turn  trans-* 
mits  it  to  a  third,  and  so  on.  But  sensation  thus  conveyed  onward, 
from  cell  to  cell,  requires  referendum  somewhere.  Moreover, 
different  lines  of  cells  thus  acting  as  incipient  nerves  would  cross 
each  other,  as  such  lines  multiplied,  and  cause  distraction  and  con- 
fusion. 

Hence  a  new  necessity  arose,   the   necessity   that   certain   cells 
along  an  embryo  nerve   line,   or  at   the  crossings  of   such   lines, 


no  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

should  assume  a  higher  function  of  inteUigence,  the  function  of 
determining  the  relative  strength  and  value  of  the  conveyed  im- 
pulses which  pass  through  them,  and  of  acting  for  the  common 
good  by  judging  of  them,  neutralizing  some  of  the  least  important, 
or  intensifying  others,  and,  in  general,  regulating  and  administer- 
ing for  all.  And  in  these  cells  at  the  crossings,  or  midway  the 
incipient  nerve,  we  find  a  nerve  ganglion  developed,  that  is  to  say, 
a  little  brain  for  that  tract  of  cells  and  nerve  lines.  These  cells  of 
ganglia  have  the  magisterial  office  thrust  upon  them  by  the  im- 
portunity of  their  fellow  cells  in  the  multicellular  union.  They 
find  themselves  the  recipients  of  confided  feeling  from  the  others, 
on  all  sides;  they  are  stimulated  by  it  and  led  to  respond  as  judges 
of  such  feeling.  From  their  situation  and  the  necessity  incident 
to  it,  the  faculty  of  discrimination  and  of  judgment  as  to  the 
nature,  character  and  motive  of  these  incoming  currents  of  sen- 
sation is  in  time  developed. 

The  cell  neurons  of  the  brain  have  thus  been  made  the  reposi- 
tories and  agents  for  the  estimation  of  a  thousand  simultaneous 
currents  of  these  partly-interpreted  sensations,  transmitted  to  them 
from  all  portions  of  the  organism,  and  particularly  from  the  or- 
gans of  special  sense,  the  eye,  the  ear,  the  olfactory  and  the  gusta- 
tory tracts. 

Thus  impressed  into  the  service  of  the  organism,  the  neurons 
have  developed  in  numbers  adequate  to  that  service.  Instead  of 
a  tiny  ganglion  for  the  receipt  of  simple  sensation,  we  have  in  the 
human  brain  a  grand  mass  of  cells  capable  of  receiving  and  esti- 
mating the  perceptions  of  a  hundred  inferior  ganglia,  of  compar- 
ing these  perceptions  with  other  previously  recorded  perceptions 
from  the  same  organs  of  the  body  and  with  those  from  other 
organs ;  of  deciding  as  to  the  relative  importance  of  all  these  and 
of  responding  through  the  motor  system  of  nerves,  in  accordance 
with  conclusions  which  are  arrived  at  after  a  final  estimate  of  the 
grand  total  of  perception,  reflex  perception,  and  the  thousandfold 
perception  of  perceptions  which  make  up  the  complicated  process 
which  we  commonly  call  thinking. 

It  is  of  interest  to  examine  the  minute  anatomy  of  the  neurons, 
and  study  the  physiological  mechanism  by  means  of  which  they 
join  themselves  together  and  unite  their  lives  to  form  the  human 
intellect.     Of  interest,  because  this  mechanism  is  the  most  wonder- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  III 

ful  thing  in  the  world.  Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our 
earth  there  is  nothing  to  compare  with  this  sentient  combine  of 
brain  cells  and  the  marvelous  networks  of  living  matter  which 
they  put  forth  to  sustain  self-consciousness. 

The  means  by  which  the  neurons  are  united  in  the  brain  has 
long  been  known  to  minute  anatomists;  and  during  the  last  fifteen 
years  numerous  investigators  have  described  the  amazing  networks 
which  they  form  in  the  cortex  of  the  cerebrum.  Whether  or  not 
the  microscopic  fibrils  coalesce  end  by  end  and  become  continuous 
from  cell  to  cell,  has  been  a  subject  of  controversy,  backed  by 
what  has  seemed  evidence  on  both  sides.  The  contention  that  the 
neurons  are  directly  united  by  their  filaments,  has  not  been  demon- 
strated beyond  question,  the  facts  going  to  show  that  these  ex- 
tended, delicate  processes  of  the  cells  very  closely  approach  each 
other  and,  during  the  elate,  erectile  condition  of  diurnal  wakeful- 
ness, actually  touch;  and  that  in  sleep  this  contact  is  broken,  a 
condition  of  non-contiguity,  brought  about  in  part  by  the  shrink- 
ing away  of  the  blood  capillary  system  in  the  cortex  during  som- 
nolence. 

Until  recently,  however,  no  observer  appears  to  have  fully  com- 
prehended the  profound  psychic  significance  of  this  extraordinary 
web  of  living  fibrils. 

Gehuchten,  Obersteiner  and  His  called  attention  to  the  extraor- 
dinary length  of  the  protoplasmic  branches  of  brain  cells,  and 
to  the  extended  and  intricate  networks  which  they  form.  Con- 
jecture was  attracted  to  them;  but  it  was  not  until  the  growth  of 
our  knowledge  had  embraced  other  discoveries  that  these  marvel- 
ous networks  of  sentient,  protoplasmic  threads  were  identified  not 
only  as  a  means  of  association  of  cell  with  cell,  but  as  the  con- 
sentient web  of  living  matter  by  means  of  which  self-consciousness 
and  personal  identity  exist  and  are  possible.  In  a  word,  that  it 
is  by  means  of  this  vast  network  of  interactive  fibers,  fibrils  and 
filaments  that  the  many  millions  of  cells  of  the  brain  are  able  to 
live  as  one  self-conscious  entity  and  give  rise  to  a  personal  intellect. 

Histologically,  as  the  abode  of  the  genus  of  intellectual  cells, 
the  human  brain  must  be  conceived  of  as  a  vast  skein  or  congeries 
of  nerve  fibers,  on  the  outer  surface  of  which,  carefully  roofed 
over  by  the  cranium  and  tough  membranes,  lie  the  most  important 
gToups  of  cells. 


112  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

It  is  of  these  cell  groups  oi  the  convoluted,  outer  surface  or 
cortex  of  the  brain  that  we  shall  here  speak  almost  exclusively, 
scarcely  more  than  referring  to  the  great  nether  group  or  groups, 
commonly  described  as  the  nuclear  and  fusiform  cells;  for  it  is 
in  the  cortex  that  the  ramifications  of  the  cell  processes  which 
we  are  now  to  study,  are  best  exemplified. 

These  cell  groups  of  the  cortex,  of  the  cerebrum,  and  of  the 
superficial  gray  matter  of  the  cerebellum,  are  wonderfully  well 
situated  for  nutrition,  supported  at  ease,  so  to  speak,  by  the  fibrils 
of  servant  cells  of  inferior  grade  (neuroglia),  lodged  in  fluid  beds, 
and  guarded  by  protective  or  repair  cells.  Great  advantages  are 
theirs,  and  great  things  in  the  line  of  intelligence  are  accomplished 
by  them.  Not  even  our  best  methods  of  preparation  and  staining 
have  yet  enal^led  us  to  trace  all  the  delicate  branches,  fibrils  and 
processes  which  they  thrust  forth  and  maintain  extended,  in  order 
to  touch  and  to  lie  in  sentient  contact  with  those  of  other  cells, 
thus  enabling  hundreds  of  them  to  live  in  close  apperception  and 
sentient  communion  one  with  another. 

The  cells  of  this  class,  or  species,  from  the  human  cerebellum, 
or  lesser  brain,  differ  considerably  in  size  and  general  appearance 
from  those  of  the  cerebrum,  and  also  from  those  of  the  spinal 
cord;  but  from  their  position  and  connections,  their  psychic  role 
is  believed  to  be  similar,  since  they  are  held  to  preside  over  and 
inaugurate  the  passage  of  subjective  sentience  into  molecular 
motion. 

The  protoplasmic  processes  of  the  large  Purkinje  cells  from  the 
folia  of  the  human  cerebellum  interlace  somewhat  as  sketched  with 
a  pen  in  the  accompanying  drawing.  But  neither  in  this  sketch, 
nor  the  merely  diagrammatic  one  of  pyramidal  cells  from  the 
cortex  cerebri,  which  follows  it,  can  the  amazing  networks  which 
the  branches  and  filaments  form,  be  fully  depicted,  since  as  seen  on 
"  slides,"  after  microtome  section,  the  filaments  are  often  broken, 
or  cut  asunder. 

The  Purkinje  cells,  so  called,  are  from  .03  to  .04  of  a  millimeter 
in  length;  but  the  branched  processes  and  fibers  which  emanate 
from  them  are  of  far  greater  extent. 

These  cells  are  collocated  in  a  layer  at  a  depth  of  less  than  a 
millimeter  in  the  outer  stratum  of  the  foliated  cerebellar  surface, 
and  are  nourished  from  a  rich  capillary  plexus.     They  are  sup- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED 


113 


ported,  that  is  to  say,  held  up  otherwise  than  by  their  own  con- 
sistency and  firmness,  by  a  system  of  adjuvant  cells  called  neu- 
roglia and  fonnerly  known  as  "  spider  cells,"  or  "  basket  cells," 
which  some  observers  have  been  inclined  to  classify  as  semi-nerve 
cells.  In  some  tracts  of  the  brain  these  spider  or  basket  cells  have 
been  discerned  as  forming  a  net  of  supporting  fibers  about  the 
body  of  the  larger  nerve  cell. 


From  what  may  be  designated  as  the  base  of  the  nerve  cell, 
there  emerges  a  process,  or  protoplasmic  branch,  termed  the 
"  axis-cylinder  process,"  which  dips  downward  into  a  layer  of 
smaller  nuclear  cells  and  enters  the  great  skein  of  nerve  fibers 
which  forms  the  central  parts  of  the  brain.  How  far  this  axis- 
cylinder  process  or  fiber  proceeds  has  never  yet  been  fully  demon- 
strated, but  it  is  believed  to  proceed  to,  or  become  continuous  with 
a  fiber  which  does  proceed  to,  other  tracts  of  the  opposite  hemi- 
sphere of  the  brain,  and  even  to  pass  down  the  spinal  cord  and 
£xtend  to  distant  tissues  of  the  bod  v. 


114  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Reverting  again  to  the  body  of  the  cell,  we  find  issuing  from 
the  other  side,  the  side  opposite  the  base  and  hence  the  part 
directed  toward  the  outer  surface,  one  and  frequently  two  large 
branching  processes,  which  often  extend  a  relatively  great  dis- 
tance toward  the  extreme  outer  surface  of  the  cortex  and  branch, 
like  a  tree  top,  into  smaller  and  smaller  processes  and  fibrils,  till 
the  best  methods  of  preparation  fail  to  trace  them  farther. 

In  this  outer  layer  of  the  cortex  of  the  cerebellum  (which  has 
been  inappropriately  termed  the  molecular  layer)  the  extended, 
constantly  branching  processes  of  many  cells  lie  side  by  side, 
contiguous  and  in  contact;  and  as  these  processes  and  fibrils  are 
protoplasmic  and  sentient,  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  they  per- 
cevue  each  other  from  such  contact,  and  communicate  one  with 
another.  In  a  word,  there  is  the  strongest  probability,  short  of 
certainty,  that  the  business  of  willing  movement  outward  to  the 
muscles  is  dependent  upon  the  concerted  action  of  these  cells. 

Besides  the  fibrils  of  the  large  Purkinje  cells  there  are  also 
in  this  outer  "  molecular  "  layer,  minute  fibrillar  processes  from 
great  numbers  of  smaller  cells  which  lie  embedded  in  it;  also 
nervous  fibrils  which,  so  far  as  discovered,  are  not  processes  of 
cells,  but  seem  to  be  of  the  nature  of  separate  growths,  analogous 
in  some  degree  to  the  fibers  of  muscular  tissue,  which  are  not 
pure  protoplasm  but  of  the  nature  of  protoplasmic  alloys. 

These  latter  minute  fibers  also  lie  in  contact  with  the  diffused 
fibrils  of  the  Purkinje  cells,  and  apparently  bear  sentient  impulses 
from  them  downward  into  the  vast  hank  of  central  fibers, 

Beneath  this  layer  of  large-branched  cells,  there  is  another  class 
or  variety  of  smaller  nuclear  cells,  the  bodies  of  which  have 
scarcely  one-fourth  the  diameter  of  their  superior  neighbors. 
Many  of  these  have  small  fibrillar  processes,  one  of  which  is  some- 
times seen  to  rise  toward  the  "  molecular  "  layer  while  the  other 
dips  downward  amidst  the  white  fasces  of  fibers.  The  function 
of  these  smaller  nuclear  cells  is  not  easily  divined. 

In  tne  medulla  oblongata  and  in  the  gray  columns  of  the  spinal 
cord  are  also  found  large  cells  with  branched  protoplasmic  proc- 
esses, somewhat  resembling  those  of  the  cerebellum,  with  small 
nuclear  cells  and  fusiform  or  spindle-shaped  ceils,  in  connection 
with  the  same  mazy  hanks  and  bundles  of  communicating  fibers. 
And  in  the  great  hemispheres  of  the  cerebrum,  or  grander  brain. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  II 5 

is  found  an  arrangement  of  superior  cells  and  inferior  cells,  with 
enormous  hanks  of  fibers  similar  to  that  observed  in  the  cerebel- 
lum, but  on  a  vaster  scale. 

The  superior  and  larger  cells  of  the  cerebral  cortex  differ  in 
form  from  the  Purkinje  cells,  and  from  their  triangular  outline 
have  received  the  name  of  pyramidal  cells.  They  are  found  in 
great  numbers  and  at  varying  depths  in  the  "  molecular  "  gray 
cortex  of  the  cerebrum.  The  body  of  a  large  pyramidal  cell 
averages  about  .04  mm.  in  length  by  .02  mm.  in  width.  It  oc- 
cupies a  free  space,  is  surrounded  by  blood  capillaries  which  sup- 
ply it  with  nutriment,  and  rests  easily  in  lymph  fluid,  with  a  num- 
ber of  protective  cells  and  repair  cells  in  close  attendance  upon  it. 
It  is  further  supported  by  the  nets  of  "  basket  "  cells  (neuroglia), 
and  altogether  is  placed  in  a  position  of  ease,  as  if  for  intellectual 
labor.  The  large  cell  body  contains  granular  protoplasm ;  and 
within  it  are  to  be  seen  the  essential  cell  nucleus,  occasional  vac- 
uoles, and  very  frequently  a  few  grains  of  pigment.  The  base  of 
a  pyramidal  cell  is  directed  toward  the  axis  of  the  brain  convolu- 
tion, i.  e.,  toward  the  mass  of  white  medulated  nerve  fibers  of  the 
interior.  At  the  base,  the  protoplasmic  cell-substance  is  prolonged 
downward  in  a  number  of  branched  filamentous  processes;  and 
ordinarily,  about  midway,  one  of  these  assumes  the  character  of  an 
axis-cylinder  process,  which,  entering  the  mass  of  sheathed  fibers, 
becomes  one  of  them,  extending  eventually  to  some  distant  quarter 
of  the  brain  or  of  the  body.  The  other  processes  from  the  base, 
especially  those  from  the  outer  corners,  branch  out  in  finer  fibrils, 
which  intermingle  with  those  of  other  cells  and  with  the  minute 
fibers  which  certain  cells  appear  to  produce  and  cast  forth  from 
their  cell  bodies. 

A  still  more  remarkable  process,  however,  rises  from  the  apex 
or  top  of  the  cell.  This  apical  process  is  directed  upward  or 
outward  into  the  cortex,  branching  at  intervals  and  extending 
to  a  comparatively  great  height  into  the  "  molecular  "  or  outer 
layer  of  the  cortex,  where  its  fibrils  lie  in  contact  with  those  of 
numerous  other  cells. 

In  certain  situations,  noticeably  at  the  summit  of  the  convolu- 
tions, some  of  the  pyramidal  cells  attain  great  size,  comparatively, 
and  are  found  to  have  bodies  .12  mm.  in  length  by  .05  mm.  in 
width ;  but,  in  far  greater  numbers,  there  is  associated  with  them 


ii6 


IMMORTAL    LIFE 


a  class  of  small  pyramidal  cells,  much  like  those  described  above 
as  regards  form  and  processes,  but  smaller,  having  bodies  no  more 
than  .01  mm.  in  length  by  .005  mm.  in  width.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  these  small  pyramidal  cells  are  a  reserve  in  slow  process  of 
development  to  the  larger  class,  or  would  so  develop  under  stim- 
ulus. 

Beneath  the  layer  of  pyramidal  cells  there  is  also  found  in  the 
cerebral  cortex  a  "  nuclear  "  layer  of  small  rounded  cells,   some 


AAA    LARGE  PYRAMIDAL   CELLS   OF  THE   CORTEX   CEREBRI. 

CCC     SMALL   PYRAMIDAL   CELLS. 

B  B  B    AXIS-CYLINDER  PROCESSES. 

ODD  APICAL  PROCESSES  AND  PROTOPLASMIC   BRANCHINGS. 


of  which  have  protoplasmic  processes  as  seen  in  the  cerebellum ; 
and  there  is  also  a  fusiform  group. 

We  find  that  the  entire  surface  of  the  cortex  cerebri  is  com- 
posed mainly  of  these  marvelous  networks,  associated  with  the 
plexuses  of  blood  capillaries  and  the  adjuvant  neuroglia  required 
for  their  physical  support  and  maintenance.  The  superficies  of 
the  cortex,   indeed,   is  by   far   the   most   remarkable   structure   of 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  IIJ 

which  minute  anatomy  has  knowledge.  The  extent  and  intricacy 
of  the  fibrillar  threads,  loops  and  twigs,  formed  by  the  mutual 
interlacing  and  interlooping  of  the  thousands  of  tree-like  branches 
which  the  cells  send  upward  into  it,  are  quite  incomparable.  In 
this  respect  the  cortex  of  the  brain  is  a  hundred  times  more  dense 
and  more  involved  than  are  the  tops  of  the  trees  in  a  dense  forest. 
The  branches,  in  their  amazing  ramifications,  not  unfrequently 
extend  to  a  distance  of  twenty  times  the  length  of  the  cell  body. 
It  is  as  if  each  tree  of  a  thick  forest  sent  forth  vines  for  branches, 
which  climbed  to  a  distance  of  several  hundred  yards,  dividing  as 
they  proceeded  into  a  thousand  vinelets  and  tendrils,  which  en- 
wrapped and  entwined  everything  in  their  course.  Such  a  jungle, 
growing  to  a  height  of  several  hundred  feet,  would  no  more  than 
illustrate  this  astonishing  lacework  of  the  protoplasmic  fibrils  of 
the  cortical  cells. 

Histologists  were  early  led  to  inquire  with  wonder  as  to  the 
significance  and  use  of  this  mazy  output  of  living  filaments.  It 
cannot  be  wholly  or  largely  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing  cell 
nutrition,  for  these  cells  are  nourished  by  the  saprophytic  or 
absorptive  method,  and  not  by  the  prehension  of   food  particles. 

It  is  not  to  accomplish  locomotion,  for  these  cells  rest  nearly 
stationary  in  fluid  beds,  sustained  by  the  nets  of  neuroglia. 

The  conclusion  is  reached,  of  necessity,  that  these  far-branch- 
ing processes  are  thrust  forth  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  perception 
and  communication,  cell  with  cell.  The  sentient,  protoplasmic 
fibrils  touch,  or  so  nearly  touch  that  what  one  cell  feels  and  knows 
is  known  and  felt  by  its  neighbor  cell.  It  would  follow  that  an 
impulse  or  a  sensation  which  comes  to  one  through  its  afferent 
fiber  from  the  outer  world  is  felt  and  known  by  all  its  mates 
throughout  that  entire  convolution  or  tract  of  cells,  and  not  only 
in  that  one  convolution,  but  —  so  complete  is  the  protoplasmic 
connection  —  throughout  the  whole  brain,  which  is  thus  made  to 
take  cognizance  of  sensation  as  a  unit,  as  a  personal,  self-con- 
scious individual. 

For  all  this  mazy  web  is  demonstrated  by  the  reactive  agents  of 
our  staining  fluids  to  be  pure  protoplasm ;  sentient,  living  matter, 
capable  of  feeling,  and  able  to  convey  sensation.  \Mien.  there- 
fore, a  sensation,  received  either  through  the  eye,  the  ear,  the 
organs  of  taste  and  smell,  or  through  the  thousand  sensory  nerves 


Il8  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

extending  to  the  surfaces  of  the  body,  is  transmitted  along  a 
sheathed  nerve  fiber  and  reaches  one  or  more  of  these  large  cells 
of  the  cortex,  intelligence  of  such  a  sensation  is  at  once  distributed 
by  means  of  the  sentient  network  to  a  hundred  neighbor  cells,  and 
from  them  is  diffused  over  the  entire  brain,  which  thus  receives 
tidings  as  if  it  were  a  single  huge  cell,  instead  of  an  aggregation 
of  two  hundred  millions  of  cells,  each  a  distinct  living  creature. 

By  means  of  this  sentient  bond  of  cell  to  cell,  afforded  by  the 
protoplasmic  networks,  many  millions  of  cell  lives  are  blended  in 
one  common  life,  having  one  common  sense.  By  means  of  this 
bond,  too,  a  higher  life  of  greater  compass  than  that  of  the  single 
cell  is  rendered  possible.  For  by  it  thought,  which  is  the  business 
of  comparing  what  one  cell  or  tract  of^  cells  knows  with  what 
another  cell  knows,  begins,  and  both  cells  are  thereby  made  wiser 
in  experience.  Reason  is  set  up;  imagination  is  made  possible; 
and,  in  the  end,  the  human  intellect  is  developed  from  what  was 
at  first  the  primary  sentience  of  individual  cells. 

For  it  is  not  here  intended  to  advance  the  doctrine  that  the 
human  intellect  is  of  no  higher  character  than  the  sentience  of  a 
brain  cell.  By  means  of  this  extended  organization  of  cells,  too, 
something  more  than  a  quantitative  and  cumulative  result  is  at- 
tained. Human  intelligence  differs,  not  only  in  quantity  but  in 
degree,  from  cell  intelligence.  By  specialization  and  organization, 
a  higher  plane  of  intelligence  is  reached.  Biological  synthesis 
would  lead  us  to  infer  that  by  means  of  organization,  higher  and 
higher  planes  of  sentience  and  intelligence  have  been  successively 
attained  —  a  long  series  of  such  ascending  steps  —  since  first  the 
simple  elements  of  life  began  to  seek  expression  in  terrestrial 
matter.  Extended  organization  and  the  specialization  of  parts  to 
distinct  uses  have  led  to  those  more  complicated  actions  and  re- 
actions in  the  plastic,  protoplasmic  substance,  the  entirety  of  which 
issues  in  a  higher  kind  of  intelligence;  higher  because  vastly  more 
of  form  and  of  experience  is  included  in  the  brain  as  a  whole 
than  in  the  cell. 

Briefly,  we  wish  to  convey  the  idea  that,  according  to  the  pres- 
ent biological  conception,  the  human  intellect  is  something  more 
than  the  associated  sentiences  of  the  two  hundred  millions,  or 
more,  of  cells  contained  in  the  brain;  that  it  is  an  extended  de- 
velopment of  those  sentiences  to  a  higher  grade  of  intelligence, 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  II9 

rendered  possible  by  the  interaction  and  intercommunication  of 
the  cells. 

This  association  and  this  organization  have  been  largely  due 
to  the  wealth  of  protoplasmic  branches  and  fibrils  which  the  brain 
cells  have  thrown  out,  in  order  to  come  into  touch  and  sentient 
contact  with  each  other.  Once  touching,  by  whatever  agency  con- 
tact is  brought  about,  something  of  the  nature  of  "  current "  from 
cell  to  cell  throughout  the  whole  brain  appears  to  be  set  up  and 
maintained  at  a  considerable  tension  during  self-consciousness,  i.  e., 
during  wakefulness. .  To  generate  current  for  maintaining  the 
consentience  of  the  brain  as  a  whole,  an  increased  blood  supply 
is  requisite;  work  is  done  and  energy  absorbed.  The  condition, 
moreover,  gives  rise  to  waste  products  and  leads  to  exhaustion  of 
the  cell,  rendering  a  period  of  recuperation  and  rest  necessary. 
The  consentient  circuit  must  needs  be  broken.  In  sleep,  the  brain 
cell  ceases  to  live  in  its  corporate  or  social  capacity  and  reverts  to 
its  old-time,  unicellular  mode  of  life.  Independent  again,  it 
nourishes  itself  and  gains  strength  and  substance  afresh. 

Wonderful  as  are  the  protoplasmic  processes  which  the  neurons 
put  forth,  to  secure  consentience  throughout  the  brain,  they  are 
not  without  their  analogue  in  unicellular  life.  Amccha  radiosa 
projects  long  linear  rays,  as  it  floats,  to  enable  it  to  perceive  and 
draw  in  food  particles.  Gromia  terricola  projects  a  net  of  filamen- 
tous rays  and  snares.  Raphidiophrys  elegans  emits  long,  lance- 
like rays,  or  darts,  of  exceeding  tenuity,  more  minute  than  the 
finest  fiber  of  silk.  In  the  case  of  unicells  these  filaments  are 
temporary,  befitting  the  wants  and  necessities  of  single  cell  life. 
In  the  case  of  the  neurons  the  necessity  is  for  filaments  more  con- 
tinuously extended. 

By  means  of  this  elate,  retractile  mechanism,  this  vast  network 
of  feelers,  each  cell  of  the  brain  is  able  to  pool  its  self-life  in  the 
grand  merger  of  brain  life,  but  resumes  that  self-life  again  when, 
by  shrinkage  or  retraction  of  the  network  of  filaments,  sentient 
contact  with  other  cells  is  broken.  From  such  sentient  contact, 
thus  induced  and  brought  about,  the  larger  personality  ensues. 
Yet  we  merely  see  here  on  a  large  scale  with  millions  of  cells, 
what  occurs  when  two,  or  three,  or  a  hundred  unicells  join  and 
set  up  a  communal  life.  By  sentient  contact  with  each  other  a 
new,  larger  personality  comes  into  existence,  as  if  around  a  new 


I20  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

axis  of  consciousness.  Several  cell  lives  are  thrown  into  one. 
The  cell  relationship,  or  reciprocity,  suddenly,  instantaneously 
changes.     A  new  sentient  polarity  is  struck. 

Personality  is  not  resident  in  any  one  prominent  neuron,  or 
monarch  cell,  but  in  all  the  cells,  consentient  together.  There 
is  no  "  king  cell  "  ruling  the  others,  in  which  personal  identity 
centers,  no  sovereign  "  monad."  This  view  had  its  day  and  has 
been  wholly  discredited.  No  more  is  the  human  intellect  located 
at  any  one  portion  or  particular  tract  of  the  brain,  as  for  example, 
the  corpus  striatum;  this  notion,  too,  had  its  day  and  passed  to  the 
limbo  of  similar  contentions,  made  before  the  consentience  of  the 
neurons  was  understood.  Personality  is  a  coherent  blend  of  the 
lives  of  all  the  neurons,  dissoluble  and  terminable  in  sleep,  or 
from  shock,  or  at  death  of  the  organism. 

This  faculty  or  ability  of  the  cell  to  unite  its  life  with  other 
cells,  surrendering  that  life  to  become,  for  the  time,  part  of  a 
life  greater  than  its  own,  has  never  received  much  recognition,  as 
yet.  None  the  less,  it  is  the  keynote  of  human  personality;  and 
no  adequate  conception  of  that  personality,  or  soul,  can  be  formed 
until  it  is  comprehended. 

In  truth,  it  is  time  to  cease  speaking  of  the  human  intellect  as 
a  psychic  integer,  an  indissoluble  unit  of  intelligence ;  and  a 
society  for  psychical  research  which  bases  its  investigations  on  the 
assumption  of  a  detachable  psyche,  goes  wrong  at  the  outset,  and 
from  the  very  nature  of  things  will  wander  in  darkness  and  meet 
with  little  success  in  its  quest.  Human  personality  can  now  be 
resolved  into  its  separate  cell  sentiences.  We  are  able  to  show 
how  the  cells  (neurons)  unite,  by  what  means  the  greater  per- 
sonality is  brought  into  being  and  maintained  from  moment  to 
moment  and  from  year  to  year,  and  also  what  physical  steps  and 
events  are  associated  with  either  the  temporary,  or  the  final  ces- 
sation of  that  personality. 

So  ephemeral  a  thing  is  this  self-conscious  personality.  And 
at  best  it  is  intermittent,  with  the  alternate  lighting  and  darken- 
ing of  the  terrestrial  hemispheres.  Once  in  twelve  hours  it  must 
stop  in  order  that  the  neurons  may  rest  from  the  stress  caused 
by  their  unification  as  mind.  The  self-conscious  personality  is  as 
much  lost  in  sound  sleep,  as  in  organic  death,  only  in  the  one  case 
sentient  contact  is  resumed,  in  the  other  not. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  121 

Moreover,  this  personality  varies  in  degree  according  as  the 
brain  cells  come  fully  into  sentient  relationship,  or  but  partially. 
In  certain  degrees  of  somnolence,  a  part  of  the  brain  cells  appear 
to  join  contact,  giving  rise  to  dreams.  A  dream  implies  a  minor 
degree  of  self-consciousness ;  a  part  of  the  neurons  are  in  contact ; 
but  the  more  complete  personality  of  waking  hours  is  not  estab- 
lished. To  be  fully  self-conscious,  all  the  lobes,  convolutions, 
and  tracts  of  cells  must  be  involved.  This  is  best  accomplished 
after  the  cells  have  rested,  after  sleep,  when  each  cell  has  for  a 
time  been  withdrawn  from  the  consentient  bund  and  has  had 
time  to  attend  to  its  personal  wants,  nutrition  and  the  expulsion 
of  waste  products  which  accumulate  while  the  cells  are  con- 
secrating their  energies  and  merging  their  self-lives  in  the  greater 
life  of  the  organism.  The  sentient  contact  is  less  perfect  toward 
the  end  of  the  day,  when  the  neurons  are  fatigued.  The  per- 
sonality is  then  much  affected.  We  grow  heedless  and  do  work 
badly;  the  morale  runs  down  to  lower  degrees;  we  are  less  hope- 
ful, less  ambitious,  and  yield  more  readily  to  temptation  to  evil 
courses;  and  this  because  the  personality  is  weakened. 

If  the  brain  of  the  criminal  classes  could  be  inspected  and 
examined  with  this  end  in  view,  it  would  be  found  below  normal 
in  these  particulars  of  the  formation  and  maintenance  of  the 
personality. 

Wlien  one  hemisphere  of  the  brain  is  damaged,  or  paralyzed 
by  pressure  of  clots  from  ruptured  blood  vessels,  so  that  cerebra- 
tion is  limited  mainly  to  the  other  hemisphere,  we  have  the 
phenomena  of  a  diminished  personality,  an  intellect  abated  in 
volume  and  power.  The  axis  of  self -consciousness  appears  to 
have  shifted  Personal  identity  continues;  yet  the  patient  re- 
marks tJiat  he  is  a  little  strange  to  himself,  and  has  the  feeling" 
that  he  is  not  quite  the  same.  To  his  friends  it  is  evident  that 
he  is  not  what  he  was  before  the  seizure. 

In  extreme  old  age,  when  the  progressive  enfeeblement  of  the 
neurons  has  become  marked,  at  ninety  or  a  hundred  years,  the 
personality  dwindles  to  so  feeble  a  flicker  as  scarcely  to  enable  the 
person  to  be  self-recognizant,  or  perform  the  most  habitual  acts. 
It  can  hardly  be  termed  personality,  since  there  are  constantly 
recurrent  lapses  to  self-forgetfulness.  Pari  passu  with  the  cell 
exhaustion,  personality  slackens  and  deliquesces  to  the  vanishing 


122  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

point,  giving  that  surest  of  physiological  evidence  that  intellect 
has  its  source  in  the  cells,  shines  forth  from  them,  and  disappears 
as  these  founts  of  life  grow  senescent. 

It  is  the  cell-neurons  which  need  rejuvenation;  personality 
would  then  up-brighten  as  when  oil  is  renewed  in  a  burned-out 
lamp. 

The  cell-neurons  of  the  great,  highly-developed  brain-colony 
will  continue  to  shrink  in  senescence  and  lose  the  power  to  main- 
tain personality,  until  such  time  as  we  discover  how  to  regenerate 
them  in  situ  —  probably  by  bio-chemical  reagents,  similar  to  the 
"  ferments  "  now  obtained  from  the  endocrine  glands.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  greatly  prolonged  life,  deathless  life  it  may 
be,  now  awaits  dearly  indicated  new  discoveries  in  bio-chemistry. 


THE  HUMAN   PERSONALITY  IN   RELA- 
TION  TO   THE   ETHER  OF  SPACE 

A  PROBABLE   SOLUTION  OF   SPIRITISM 

In  the  course  of  efforts  to  analyze  the  currents  of  nervous 
energy  which  emanate  from  the  cells  of  the  brain,  the  writer  has 
found  it  interesting  to  observe  the  effect  of  these  currents,  or 
emanations,  on  free-roving  micro-organisms  (under  the  micro- 
scope). As  a  criterion,  or  means  of  comparison,  a  "  control  "  cur- 
rent of  electricity  from  a  small  static  machine  has  been  employed, 
of  high  frequency  and  similar  intensity,  as  indicated  by  the  electro- 
scope, the  working  hypothesis  being  that  the  emanant  current  is  a 
current  of  electricity  (corpuscles)  plus  x,  that  is  to  say,  plus  some- 
thing issuing  from  the  brain  cell,  this  latter  being,  of  course,  the 
unknown  quantity  concerning  which  knowledge  was  sought. 

The  sensitivity  of  these  minute  organisms  is  exceedingly  deli- 
cate, so  much  so  that  it  may  yet  be  found  advantageous  to  use 
them  as  instruments  of  nice  determination  of  values,  particularly 
where  the  ether  is  in  question  as  environment  and  medium  of  the 
cell-of-life.  Their  behavior,  when  subjected  to  emanant  influence 
from  other  cell  life,  is  very  interesting  and  suggestive.  They  are 
truly  psychic. 

In  fact,  these  observations,  in  toto,  have  led  me  to  lay  down,  as 
a  law  of  cell  life,  that  every  cell,  whether  a  free  unicell  or  a  tissue 
cell,  organized  in  multicellular  organisms,  is  a  "  psychic,"  import- 
ing the  word,  as  quoted,  from  the  vocabulary  of  our  friends  of 
the  Psychical  Research  Societies,  when  applied  to  automatists,  or 
"  mediums ;  "  persons  who  appear  to  lapse  voluntarily  into  an 
abnormal  condition  where  self -consciousness  is  in  abeyance,  and 
thereby  have  certain  latent  powers  of  the  brain  heightened. 

In  dealing  with  this  word  "  psychic,"  too,  and  in  attempting  to 
adapt  it  to  the  results  of  my  observations  of  the  behavior  of  micro- 
organisms under  the  conditions  above  mentioned,   I  have   found 

127, 


124  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

myself  obliged  to  define  the  word  more  fully  and  definitely  than 
I  have  before  seen  it  defined,  in  fact  to  re-define  it.  I  think,  how- 
ever, that  psychologists  generally  will  commend  this  later  defini- 
tion.    It  is  offered  merely  for  what  it  is  worth. 

I  therefore  define  a  ''  psychic  "  as  a  person  who  is  able,  tempo- 
rarily, to  drop  ordinary  perception  by  the  five  senses,  and  pass 
into  a  state  of  perceiving  through  and  by  means  of  the  ether,  in- 
stead of  by  the  air  and  the  combined  methods  of  air,  ether,  gravity, 
touch  and  chemical  action,  as  seen  in  ordinary  perception  by  the 
five  senses  of  daily  life. 

A  little  more  succinctly,  every  cell-of-life  is  naturally  a  psychic. 
But  in  the  brain,  which  is  an  organized  assemblage  of  cells,  the 
necessities  of  the  terrestrial  life  in  air,  water,  etc.,  have  led  the 
united  assemblage  to  depend  on  five  organized  senses:  ear,  eye, 
smell,  taste,  touch.  Ordinarily  it  does  thus  depend.  None  the 
less,  under  certain  conditions  which  we  term  abnormal,  it  is  able 
to  revert  suddenly  to  the  vastly  swifter,  more  far-reaching  per- 
ception through  the  ether,  where  neither  ear,  eye,  nor  touch  are 
requisite.  The  cell  of  a  simple  micro-organism  is  all  eye,  all  ear, 
because  it  is  in  practically  instantaneous  etheric  communication 
with  its  environment.  The  marvelously  delicate  protoplasmic  web 
of  the  cell  organization  vibrates  to  the  ether  thrill. 

A  psychic  or  "  trance  medium  "  then  is  a  person  who  from  some 
not  yet  -fixed  habit  or  metier  of  sensory  perception  —  either  from 
disease  or  defective  inheritance  —  is  able  to  revert,  like  Sweden- 
borg,  to  perception  through  and  by  means  of  the  ether,  the  five 
senses  of  ordinary  daily  life  passing  for  the  time  being,  either 
wholly  or  partially,  into  a  state  of  abeyance,  so  far  as  in  some 
instances  to  be  wholly  inoperative,  the  pyschic  becoming  insensible 
to  sound,  heat,  cold,  etc. 

To  see,  hear  and  feel  by  means  of  the  ether  is  what  it  is  to 
be  clairvoyant,  clairaudient  and  "  telepathic."  A  human  brain 
communicating  by  means  of  the  ether  with  the  brain  of  another 
person  is  naturally  and  from  purely  physical  causes  a  "  mind 
reader."  The  ether  puts  every  brain  en  rapport  with  every  other 
the  world  over.  Every  brain,  animal  or  human,  probably  possesses 
this  faculty  of  etheric  perception,  potential,  in  greater  or  lesser 
degree.  But  it  fades  out  as  the  brain  ages  and  grows  rigidly  or- 
ganized, that  is  to  say  habituated  to  perception  only  by  means  of 


HOW    IT    WILL   BE   ACHIEVED  1 25 

the  five  organized  senses.  Animals  appear  to  possess  etheric  per- 
ception; cats  and  young  pigs,  for  example;  and  it  is  often  apparent 
in  young  children  before  the  axis  of  self-consciousness  locates  its 
poles  permanently  and  determines  rigidly  the  personality  of  the 
existent  life. 

Instinct  has  always  been  a  dark,  inscrutable  word,  both  in  biol- 
ogy and  theology.  Biology  has  affected  to  scorn  it  of  late  years, 
but  has  never  been  able  fully  to  cope  with  it,  as  in  the  case  of 
homing  cats,  and  of  little  pigs  finding  their  way  back  to  the 
parental  sty,  after  being  carried  off  in  closed  baskets  for  many 
miles,  by  roundabout  roads, 

I  wish  here  to  call  attention  to  the  clear  manner  in  which  etheric 
perception  by  the  brain  solves  the  whilom  mystery,  and  to  the  light 
it  sheds  on  much  of  the  phenomena  formerly  termed  "  instinctive." 

In  the  human  brain,  which  is  a  well  united  (by  protoplasmic 
filaments)  association  of  millions  of  cells,  there  occurs,  in  the  case 
of  "  psychics  *'  and  "  mediums,''  a  sudden  reversion  to  perception 
by  the  brain  en  masse  through  the  ether.  The  whole  organized 
assemblage  of  brain  cells  drops  into  what  is  termed  the  trance 
state,  seeing  and  hearing  through  the  ether  instead  of  the  air.  It 
reverts  to  etheric  perception.  A  sudden,  wide  enhancement  of  the 
perceptive  powers  of  the  brain  ensues  instantly,  such  as  all  the 
celebrated  "  mediums  "  profess  to  experience.  It  is  a  different, 
more  exhaustive  metier  of  perception.  The  whole  brain  smokes 
with  emanations,  that  is  to  say  the  emanation  becomes  visible, 
sometimes  phosphorescent.  It  is  an  effort  of  the  entire  brain  as 
if  it  were  one  cell  in  unicellular  life.  We  then  have  clairvoyance, 
clairaudience,  telepathy  and  clear  perception  of  the  whole  commune 
life  of  the  earth;  cognition  also  of  the  past  and  even  of  the  future; 
—  for  clear  cognition  of  the  past  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  equiv- 
alent of  precognition,  premonition,  or  divination  of  the  future. 


WHAT  IS  THE  ETHER? 

But  what  is  this  ether  of  cosmic  space  wherein  perception  by 
the  cell-of-life  is  so  far-reaching,  and  to  which  the  perceptions 
(clairvoyance,  telepathy)  of  a  person,  in  the  "psychic"  or  trance 
state,  revert  as  a  vehicle  of  communication? 


126  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

What  do  we  know  of  it?     What  and  where  is  it? 

It  is  everywhere.  It  is  the  basis  and  matrix  of  the  universe. 
It  is  that  primeval  element,  "  without  form  and  void,"  from  which 
the  cosmos  has  emerged.  It  pervades  the  interstices  of  all  matter. 
It  is  the  fundamental  thing,  the  background  on  which  the  uni- 
verse is  built  up  and  from  which  it  has  been  evolved. 

We  know  of  matter  as  attenuate  as  the  electron ;  and  we  may 
define  the  ether  as  even,'thing  below,  or  smaller.  That  is  the  best 
we  can  do  at  present  in  the  way  of  a  definition.  It  is  the  residuum 
of  the  cosmos. 

Certain  physicists  and  chemists  believe  this  world-ether  to  be 
a  homogeneous  substance,  or  element,  not  particulate;  a  condition 
which  they  attempt  to  describe  as  "  jelly-like."  This  view,  how- 
ever, would  appear  rather  like  a  limitation  of  the  human  mind  than 
what  the  analog^^  of  the  universe  teaches.  I  deem  it  safer,  more 
likely,  in  the  light  of  that  analogy,  to  define  the  ether  as  being 
all  matter  that  is  beloiv  the  electron. 

Below  the  electron,  for  aught  we  know  to  the  contrary,  there 
stretches  away,  abysmally  downward,  a  realm  of  matter  as  yet 
unentered  by  the  researches  of  man.  That,  indeed,  is  what  now 
appears  most  probable.  How  far  downward  it  groes,  to  what  pro- 
found depths  of  things  parvicular,  no  one  knows. 

None  the  less  it  is  with  that  realm  of  fine,  yet  very  likely  dis- 
crete, particles  within  particles  —  each  with  its  titanic  endo\^Tnent 
of  energy  —  that  life,  the  life  of  the  unicell  and  of  the  organized 
multicell,  is  involved  and  has  its  intimate  environment;  the  real 
environment  through  which  it  acts  and  interacts  with  all  other 
life.  It  is  a  realm  exceedingly  sensitive  to  the  action  of  cell  life 
and  in  its  reactions  with  that  life  displays  subtle  properties. 

INIathematical  calculations  of  the  ether,  made  by  the  late  Lord 
Kelvin,  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  and  others,  give  well-nigh  incredible 
figures  as  to  the  density  of  the  ether,  its  weight  and  content  of 
energy:  for  example,  weight,  if  it  were  iron  or  stone,  of  a  thou- 
sand tons  per  cubic  millimeter,  with  a  content  of  energy  of  lo^** 
ergs,  or  3x10^^  kilow^att  centuries;  otherwise  equivalent  to  the 
output  of  a  power-house  of  a  million  horse-powers,  working  con- 
tinuously for  forty  millions  of  years.  Figures  wholly  fantastic, 
conveying  little  meaning  as  to  the  real  nature  of  the  ether  which 
other  sources  of  information,  however,  teach  us  is  a  medium  more 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I27 

elastic  and  easily  vibrant,  more  sensitive  to  impressions  and  more 
continent  of  such  impressions  than  anything  of  which  we  have  thus 
far  gained  knowledge.  We  know  that  light-waves  from  the  fixed 
stars,  or  suns  of  space,  press  steadily  forward  in  it  for  six  thou- 
sand years  from  the  date  of  their  emission ;  that  it  is  the  vehicle 
not  only  of  the  mar\'elously  delicate  thrill,  transformed  in  the 
telephone  and  in  "  wireless  "  messages,  but  also  of  the  enormous 
weights  oi  gravitation,  seen  in  the  revolution  of  the  planets.  Not 
only  is  the  ether  the  vehicle  and  medium  of  light,  heat  and 
magneto-electric  phenomena,  but  of  still  more  subtile  effects,  rays 
and  emanations  of  cell  life,  which  unceasingly  pervade  it,  modify 
it  and  hold  it  in  a  certain  attitude,  phase  or  rhythm;  vibrating  or 
echoing  all  life  on  a  certain  note,  vibrating  to  the  totality  of  all 
life.  So  far  from  being  fancies,  as  many  might  think,  these  are 
but  deductions  which  the  accumulation  of  facts  already  necessi- 
tates.   In  brief,  the  ether  is  now  the  great  new  world  of  discovery. 


CELL   METABOLISM   IN    RELATION    TO   THE    ETHER 

As  illustrative  of  the  efifect  of  cell  life  on  a  medium  so  elastic, 
so  sensitive  as  the  ether,  we  have  to  realize  that  there  is  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  approximately,  six  trillions  of  tons  of  matter, 
minutely  organized  as  living  matter  ("  protoplasm  ")  in  the  cell- 
of-life;  or  approximately,  if  spread  out,  more  than  ten  thousand 
cells  to  every  square  yard  of  surface  over  land  and  sea. 

We  have  still  further  to  realize  that  every  cell-of-life  is  a  small, 
but  powerful  bio-chemical  engine,  associated  with  the  passage 
of  sentience  into  kinetic  energy  —  matter-moving  energy  —  by  the 
intermediate  step,  or  steps,  of  will-power.  What  we  see  in  the 
cell  is  a  complicated,  delicate  organization  of  the  molecules  and 
atoms  of  more  elementary  matter,  having  for  its  object  the  rais- 
ing-up  of  the  inherent  sentient  property  of  these  molecules  and 
atoms  to  a  higher  estate  of  intelligence ;  —  for  that  is  the  evident 
object  of  cell  life  in  all  its  organizations.  It  is  a  complicated,  con- 
joint process,  sentient  in  origin,  attended  by  radiant  activitv,  lib- 
eration of  energy  and  emanations  of  corpuscular  matter  and  even 
of  atoms.  Every  cell  as  a  result  of  its  metabolism  —  its  life  — 
surrounds  itself  with  an  aura,  or  atmosphere  of  emanation,  com- 


128  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

parable  to  that  about  a  magnet.  The  same  in  greater  vohime  is 
true  of  the  multicell.  Xor  is  tliis  aura  of  emanation  and  radiation 
confined  to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  cell.  It  goes  forth  to 
great  distances. 

W'e  have  presented  then  the  picture  of  this  all-pervading,  sen- 
sitive ether  and  thousands  of  cells,  if  averaged,  to  every  square 
yard  of  the  earth's  surface,  each  giving  forth  radiant  energy  and 
emanations.  It  could  hardly  be  but  that  a  medium  so  sensitive 
to  impression  would  be  impregnated  and  profoundly  impressed  by 
so  potent  an  agency,  and  as  a  matter  of  evidence,  otherwise,  we 
find  it  so. 

The  question  then  arises,  what  form  or  mode  does  this  influ- 
ence of  cell  Hfe  on  the  ether  take?  And  here  comes  in  for  esti- 
mation all  that  great  class  of  phenomena,  facts,  traditions  and 
recorded  marvels,  which  from  time  immemorial  has  been  classed 
as  mysterious  and  which  science  has  usually  ignored,  wisely,  per- 
haps, since  the  data  for  explanation  were  not  yet  in  hand.  But 
now,  in  our  growing  knowledge  of  the  ether  and  of  matter,  we 
see  the  cause.  That  cause  is  life.  A  vast  composite  thrill,  or 
sphere  of  influence,  throughout  the  ether  is  set  up,  which  appears 
never  to  cease,  at  least  not  for  thousands  of  years.  It  is  this  which 
we  are  now  attempting  to  examine  and  study:  the  voice  of  all 
terrestrial  Hfe,  speaking  into  the  ether  from  every  cell,  uniting  in 
one  great  mandate  of  direction  and  guidance. 

This  strange  echoing  of  life  and  the  forms  of  life  by  the  ether 
is  what  has  long  baffled  us  to  understand  and  to  explain.  I  use 
the  word,  echoing,  because  at  present  it  partially  defines  what  is 
meant,  not  that  it  adequately  or  comprehensively  defines  it.  For 
it  is  more  than  an  echo;  it  is  an  echo,  a  mirror-reflection  and  a 
memory  combined,  an  echo-memory,  continuously  repeated,  carry- 
ing, too,  formative  influences. 


THE  PROBABLE  EXPLANATION  OF  MIRAGE,  FROST- 
FLOWERS  AND  GHOSTS 

Often  when  matter,  like  water  vapor,  is  in  the  nascent,  forma- 
tive or  transition  state,  this  echo-memory  in  the  ether  appears  to 
take  form  and  become  "  fixed,"  as  in  the  frost-flower  on  the  win- 


now    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVE!-  1 29 

dow  pane  in  winter;  those  wonderful  fronds  and  fern  leaves  which 
form  with  such  startling-  suddenness,  even  as  one  watches  them. 

In  quest  of  symbols  of  comparison,  this  ether  "  echo  "  resembles 
photography  rather  than  echoes ;  there  issue  into  the  ether,  con- 
tinuously, what  is  equivalent  to  pictures  of  the  forms  of  life  and 
—  what  is  far  more  difficult  of  comprehension  —  impressions  of 
traits  and  qualities  as  well  as  of  form,  shape  and  pattern.  The 
evidences  of  this  are  many.  An  etheric  "  echo  "  of  character  as 
well  as  a  picture  of  form  and  lineaments  is  cast  and  reverberates 
unceasingly.  These  echoes,  or  pictures.  "  psychics  "  often  appear 
to  perceive,  and  vaguely,  ignorantly,  attempt  to  interpret  to  us. 

By  what  mode  of  radiation,  or  emanation,  this  is  accomplished, 
we  do  not  yet  know,  whether  by  rays  purely  dynamic,  or  a  pro- 
jection of  corpuscular  matter  from  the  cell  katabolism.  Certain 
facts  indicate  that  both  modes  occur  in  combination.  Thus  far  it 
can  only  be  said  that  the  sum  total  of  all  the  phenomena  shows 
that  something  of  the  nature  of  this  echoing  of  imagery  exists 
in  the  ether,  and  reacts  on  the  cell-of-life.  The  ether  is  the  reposi- 
tory of  the  "  soul  "  of  life  on  the  earth,  the  garner  and  the  con- 
tinuum of  that  soul. 

The  difficulty  of  conceiving  these  phenomena  lies  in  forming 
concepts  of  the  .wonderfully  tenuous  and  elastic  nature  of  the 
medium  in  which  they  occur.  Thus  far  science  has  dealt  with 
no  substance  like  it.  Anomalous  and  absurd  it  appears  to  think 
of  a  substance  which  will  mirror  the  morals  of  a  living  creature, 
a  cell  or  a  man !     Yet  science  is  face  to  face  with  this  anomaly. 

Often  this  imagery  takes  fantastic  forms,  as  revealed  in  the 
mirage  over  desert  lands,  where  for  a  moment  or  an  hour,  owing 
to  a  nascent  state  of  the  aerial  vapor  as  the  day  advances,  it  is 
"  fixed  "  visibly  in  the  atmosphere,  as  groves,  streams  and  foun- 
tains ;  or  in  the  vast  semblance  of  populous  cities,  with  structures 
like  those  of  the  great  World's  Fairs,  perhaps  the  ether  echo- 
memory  of  them. 

The  strange  truth  appears  to  be.  that  every  life,  every  person- 
ality, which  has  ever  lived,  whether  unicell,  animal  or  man,  is  thus 
"  echoed,''  and  be-pictured.  Its  imago,  form,  traits  and  morals 
even  are  "  echoed,"  preserved  and  carried  on  into  the  future.  In 
this  ethereous  realm  it  joins  and  blends  with  "  the  innumerable 
caravan  "  of  those  who  have  lived  self-consciously  in  protoplasmic 


130  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

life.  It  is  not  the  self-conscious  personality ;  that  self-conscious- 
ness pertains  to  the  living  matter  of  the  cell-of-life,  but  the  image 
of  that  personality,  the  shade,  the  ghost. 

From  this  it  follows  that  when  a  "  psychic  "  passes  into  the 
condition  of  etheric  perception,  in  place  of  ordinary  perception, 
these  images,  shades,  or  "  spirits  "  of  the  dead,  or  even  of  the  liv- 
ing, throng  upon  her  suddenly  heightened  sense;  a  semblance  of 
"  control,"  "  personation,"  or  of  "  possession  "  occurs,  and  then 
her  physical  tongue,  or  pencil,  gives  utterance  to  the  etheric  echo, 
picture  or  vision.  We  who  are  normal,  or  think  we  are,  who  live 
according  to  the  evidence  of  our  five  senses,  perceive  nothing  of 
all  this  etheric  imagery.  To  attain  it,  direct  protoplasmic  contact 
must  be  established  with  the  ether. 

Knowing  what  we  now  know  of  the  ether,  it  is  by  no  means 
incredible  that  what  the  "  psychic  "  perceives,  is  but  the  "  shade," 
the  etheric  image,  of  the  personality  that  was  once  embodied  and 
hence  self-conscious;  the  etheric  "echo"  of  what  that  personality 
once  was. 

"  Psychics,"  too,  are  of  all  degrees  of  excellence,  as  such,  and 
alas,  of  all  degrees  of  rectitude.  Some  possess  etheric  perception 
much  clearer  than  others.  None  perceive  perfectly;  and  all  inter- 
pret what  they  perceive  vaguely  and  erratically,  tinged  and  col- 
ored by  their  own  ideas  and  beliefs. 


PSYCHICAL   RESEARCH;   A   HARSH   CRITICISM 

A  former  member  of  the  American  Society  for  Psychical  Re- 
search in  a  very  harsh  criticism  of  Salvation  by  Science  remarked, 
"  This  book  would  never  have  been  put  forth  if  the  author  had 
been  con^'ersant  with  the  scholarly  work  of  Frederick  W.  H. 
IMyers,  entitled  Huuian  Personality,  and  the  Reports  and  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  English  and  American  Societies  of  Psychical  Re- 
search. His  ignorance  is  his  only  excuse,  if  excuse  it  can  be 
called." 

This  is  frankness  of  the  gauntest,  tempered  by  charity  the  cold- 
est; and  unfortunately  I  have  not  even  the  poor  excuse  which 
my  critic  concedes.  I  have  read  Myers'  Human  Personality  very 
carefully,  also  the  later  papers  and  works  on  the  same  subject  by 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I3I 

Professor  Crookes,  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  Mr.  Stead,  Dr.  Hyslop, 
Rider,  Podmore,  Carrington,  Camille  Flammarion,  Dr.  Lombroso, 
Professor  William  James  and  others,  some  living,  many  deceased. 

Nor  am  I  unfamiliar  with  the  "  psychic  "  phenomena,  induced 
by  many  "  mediums."  My  sin  therefore  is  one  against  much 
"light"  (as  my  critic  sees  it),  all  the  light  there  is,  indeed;  — 
and  I  certainly  wish  there  were  more.  I  desire  earnestly  the  privi- 
lege of  saying  that  my  attitude  toward  all  and  everything  in  the 
line  of  bona  fide  psychical  research  is  that  of  a  pupil  and  learner. 
I  believe  that  the  Psychical  Research  Societies  and  the  authors 
cited  above  have  done  good  work  to  advance  the  truth,  even  when 
—  like  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  —  they  manifestly  fail  to  discern  it. 

"  Our  records  prove  the  persistence  of  the  discarnate  spirit's 
life,"  wrote  Frederick  Myers,  and  died  strong  in  that  belief. 

Is  it  all  so  certainly  proved  then? 

The  writer  is  not  a  partisan  pro  or  con.  A  new  view,  what  I 
believe  to  be  a  solution  of  spiritism,  is  presented  here  wholly  from 
the  standpoint  of  my  own  researches;  a  view  associated  with  a 
new  definition  of  human  personality  and  of  psychic  phenomena 
generally.  It  is  presented  in  the  hope  that  it  will  be  tested  ex- 
perimentally by  others. 

The  Records  and  Proceedings  of  the  Psychical  Research  Soci- 
eties jumble  together  instances  of  clairvoyance,  clairaudience, 
telepathy,  hypnotism,  "  double  personality,"  levitation  of  tables 
and  "  materializations,"  with  alleged  communications  from  "  dis- 
carnate "  spirits :  a  bizarre  accumulation  of  phenomena,  often 
having  no  proper  relativity  to  the  matter  in  question.  All  so 
mixed,  so  confounded  one  thing  with  another,  that  it  is  difficult  to 
isolate  or  locate  the  facts  that  go  properly  together  for  a  logical 
explanation  of  anything  connected  with  it.  One  turns  wearily 
from  the  perusal  of  it,  with  the  strong  conviction  that  the  key  to 
it  all  is  missing,  and  that  the  right  route  has  not  been  followed. 

So  much  so  that  the  present  writer  has  found  it  better  to  revert 
largely  to  the  inductive  method  of  investigation,  in  the  light  of 
our  new  knowledge  of  matter.  For  example,  these  alleged  levita- 
tions  of  tables  and  flower  pots,  clairvoyance  and  telepathy,  when 
not  tricks,  may  very  possibly  be  connected  with  etheric  phenomena. 
But  what  are  these  "  materialized  spirits,"  "  spirit  hands,"  ghosts 
and  apparitions?     Much  of  it  is  imposture,  but  possibly  not  all. 


132  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

It  would  be  by  no  means  surprising  if  the  ether  were  a  factor  or 
agency  here.  "  Materiahzations  "  may  take  place  in  it^  naturally. 
But  how  ? 

For  answer  to  this  let  us  return  to  the  analysis  of  those  currents 
and  emanations  which  constantly  issue  from  the  human  brain  and 
the  human  organism  as  a  whole.  Of  these  currents  we  can  now 
say  positively  that  they  are  like  and  probably  identical  with  elec- 
trical currents,  plus  a  fiux  of  minute  particles,  corpuscular,  or 
molecular,  it  may  be.  There  is  such  an  outward  flux  from  the 
brain,  although  we  cannot  yet  say  just  what  kind  of  matter  it  is, 
nor  yet  that  it  is  ahvays  the  same.  Very  likely  it  varies  and 
changes,  with  the  mood,  temper,  or  physiological  condition  of  the 
brain  from  which  it  issues. 

Experimentally,  the  evidence  of  the  existence  of  this  emanation 
is  as  good  as  any  evidence  can  be.  It  exists  and  forms  an  aura, 
or  atmosphere,  pen-ading  and  surrounding  the  organism,  over- 
flowing it,  too,  on  all  sides.  The  evidence  from  a  great  number 
of  observations  is  also  to  the  effect  that  in  case  of  a  "  psychic  " 
in  trance,  passing  into  the  state  of  etheric  perception,  the  quantity 
or  volume  of  emanation  from  the  brain  cells  is  increased,  or  inten- 
sified. Either  from  a  secret,  conscious  effort  of  the  will,  or  from 
subconscious  will-power  on  the  part  of  the  "  psychic,"  this  volume 
of  emanant  matter  is  then  greater  and  not  very  unfrequently  takes 
visible  form.  In  the  case  of  Dr.  Lombroso's  observations  of 
Eusapia  Paladino,  a  "  cool  wind  "  was  felt  to  issue  from  her  head. 
By  night  this  emanation  is  phosphorescent. 

The  emanation  or  radiation  from  her  organism  may  have  been 
of  sufficient  volume,  as  Dr.  Lombroso  believed,  to  enable  her  mus- 
cular strength  to  be  transferred  by  it. 

As  analogous  phenomena,  from  a  wholly  different  source,  the 
wTiter  once  saw  large  dim  globes  of  luminous  matter  roll  slowly 
along  the  rails  of  a  railroad,  on  a  hot  summer  night,  hopping  from 
rail  to  rail  where  the  rail-ends  joined,  and  finally  exploding  with 
a  considerable  report  and  dissolving  from  view,  as  they  reached 
the  wheels  of  a  locomotive  standing  on  the  track;  —  a  case  of 
natural  "  matcriali/.ati^m,"  not  associated  with  life,  or  living  or- 
ganisms. These  luminous  bodies  —  a  foot  in  diameter,  perhaps  — 
were  probably  electrons,  englobed  and  associated  with  other  mat- 
ter, either  fluid  or  gaseous. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 33 

The  emanation  from  the  brain  of  a  "  psychic  "  is  apparently 
composite  and  quite  complex.  It  would  be  interesting  and  instruct- 
ive if  Dr.  Lombroso,  or  Dr.  Foa,  could  have  devised  some  method 
of  testing  it,  electrically  and  chemically.  In  this  brain  cell  emana- 
tion and  the  power  of  the  "  psychic  "  to  project  it,  either  con- 
sciously or  subconsciously,  resides  undoubtedly  the  explanation 
of  table-turning,  table-lifting,  spirit-rappings,  spirit  hands,  spirit 
faces  and  "  materializations  "  generally.  ( I  am  speaking  here,  of 
course,  of  that  small  per  cent,  of  all  of  these  "  manifestations  " 
which  is  not  fraudulent.) 

The  fire-fly  and  gymnote  originate  and  cast  forth  emanations 
from  the  cell  metabolism  of  their  bodies.  In  unicellular  life  we 
even  see  the  emanation  take  the  form  of  tiny  improvised  javelins. 
Unicells  also  levitate  objects,  hypnotize  their  victims,  and  paralyze 
their  foes  —  all  by  will-power. 

These  emanations  are  mysterious  only  in  the  sense  of  being 
not  yet  fully  understood;  they  are  "spiritual"  only  in  the  sense 
of  being  physically  very  tenuous  and  fluidic.  The  "  mediums  " 
themselves  are  commonly  ignorant  persons,  some  honest,  some 
tricky.  Often  they  are  as  credulous  concerning  "  spirits  "  as  the 
venerable  Alfred  Russel  \A'allace  himself.  Yet  not  a  few  of  the 
"best  mediums"  frankly  declare  themselves  skeptical;  two  whom 
I  know  personally  are  unbelievers  as  to  the  existence  of  disem- 
bodied intelligences.  "  Somehow,  yet  how  I  don't  know,  I  do  all 
these  things,  myself,"  one  of  them  said  to  me. 

I  record  here  a  very  interesting  observation  by  Dr.  Lombroso, 
namely,  that  when  Eusapia  Paladino  was  seen  to  "  levitate  "  a 
table,  her  own  weight,  when  sitting  on  a  scale,  was  found  to  be 
increased  exactly  by  the  weight  of  the  table  lifted.  To  the 
physicist  this  fact  of  itself  is  very  significant;  and  altogether  the 
physical  problem  thus  presented,  is  a  very  pretty  one.  That  it  has 
any  connection  whatever  with  disembodied  intelligences  is  so 
highly  improbable,  that  to  find  such  phenomena  included  among 
the  "  evidences  "  of  the  existence  of  such  intelligences  is  a  curious 
illustration  of  the  hold  certain  old  superstitions  still  retain  even 
on  the  minds  of  savants ! 

It  is  an  interesting  question  how  far.  to  what  distance,  the 
material  part  of  the  emanation  can  be  projected  by  the  "  psychic  " 
—  one  of  those  problems  whicli   will  ere  long  become  a   matter 


134  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

of  experiment,  to  wit,  the  raising  of  ghosts  and  visible  appari- 
tions. 

The  writer,  however,  is  far  from  holding  that  all  apparitions 
are  thus  subjectively  projected.  Ghosts,  phantoms  and  phantasms 
are  apparently  of  many  kinds.  There  is  a  well-evidenced  phantom 
which  seems  to  be  purely  etheric,  akin  to  the  mirage,  the  appear- 
ance of  which  is  freakish  and  dependent  on  properties  of  the  ether 
not  yet  understood.  These,  like  Fata  Morgana,  have  apparently 
no  direct  connection  with  the  human  brain  and  might  appear  any- 
where, far  from  the  haunts  of  men :  what  our  Theosophist  friends 
would  probably  term  "  elementals  "  or  "  nature  spirits."  There 
is  also  the  poltergeist,  the  crime-ghost,  the  haunted-house  ghost, 
and  finally  the  venerable  graveyard  ghost,  of  the  existence  of  all 
of  which  there  is  fairly  good  evidence,  but  by  no  means  evidence 
that  they  are  disembodied  personalities  still  intelligently  alive. 
The  plea  made  here  and  made  very  earnestly  is  that  science  shall 
not  weakly  falsify  itself  by  turning  "  spiritist,"  until  we  have  in- 
vestigated the  properties  of  the  ether-of-space  a  little  farther. 

The  ability  of  certain  psychics,  when  in  trance,  to  externalize 
or  project  what  De  Rochas  calls  a  "  fluidic  double,"  or  "  astral 
double,"  to  a  considerable  distance  outward  from  their  bodies,  also 
rests  on  good  evidence.  Beyond  reasonable  doubt  it  is  to  this 
projectable  "  fluidic  double  "  (in  conjunction  with  an  emanation 
from  the  brain  cells  of  the  medium)  that  many  of  these  phenom- 
ena might  be  attributed. 

It  is  safe  to  predict  that  these  phenomena,  in  toto,  will  be  dem- 
onstrated to  be  etheric  in  connection  with  cell  emanation. 

The  *'  control  spirit  "  of  the  medium  in  many  of  these  cases  is, 
I  believe,  one  of  the  many  latent  personalities  of  which  the  human 
brain  is  the  habitat,  or  repository,  and  which  in  trance  rise  into 
temporary  possession  of  the  medium's  faculties.  But  of  this  more 
will  be  said  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  human  personality. 

For  this  has  brought  us  to  the  crux  of  the  matter  —  human 
personality. 

AN  ERRONEOUS  DEFINITION 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  a  false  definition  of  human  personality  is 
the  rock  on  which  Psychical  Research  has  thus  far  split.     Here, 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  135 

too,  the  truth-seeking  Myers  went  astray  at  the  outset  of  his  pains- 
taking quest.  He  assumed  —  they  all  assume  —  that  the  human 
psyche,  the  personality,  is  an  infrangible  unit,  detachable  at  death 
from  the  human  organism,  with  self-consciousness  intact;  they 
assume  this,  or  at  least  make  use  of  it  as  their  working  hypothe- 
sis. That  was  the  definition  of  Butler,  of  Hamilton  and  of  all 
the  mental  philosophers  of  the  past  century  whose  works  were 
formerly  used  as  our  college  text  books.  Myers  was  a  follower 
of  Reid  and  these  former  lights  of  Mental  Philosophy.  He  at- 
tempted, however,  to  expand  the  conception  of  a  detachable  psyche 
in  accord  with  certain  facts  of  scientific  research  and  his  copious 
records  of  **  spiritist  "  phenomena.  From  these  latter,  largely,  he 
deduced  the  idea  of  a  subliminal,  or  subconscious  personality,  and 
also  of  a  supra-liminal,  or  self-conscious  personality,  but  held  that 
these  sometimes  interact.  It  is,  he  believed,  some  essential  part 
or  principle  of  the  subliminal  personality,  or  of  the  two  combined, 
which  causes  apparitions  and  spirit  phenomena  generally.  This 
esoteric  principle,  he  held,  was  the  part  of  human  personality 
which  survives,  self-consciously,  the  death  of  the  body. 

The  idea  of  a  subliminal,  or  subconscious  mind  was  purely 
hypothetical  with  Myers.  He  had  little  conception  of  the  part  the 
ether  plays  in  psychic  phenomena  and  knew  nothing,  experimen- 
tally, of  those  emanations  from  the  brain  which  cause  all,  or  nearly 
all  the  "  evidences  "  on  which  spiritists  rest  their  contention.  It 
must  therefore  be  reckoned  as  a  good  guess  on  his  part,  or  would 
have  been,  if  he  had  classed  it  as  physical  and  natural,  instead  of 
"  spiritual."  From  lack  of  this  later  knowledge  and  from  his 
erroneous  theory  of  human  personality,  Myers  went  astray  and 
groped  in  darkness.  The  now  well-indicated  facts  of  biology  and 
histology  prove  beyond  question  or  peradventure  that  the  human 
personality  is  no  such  indivisible  integer  or  entity,  but  an  organized 
union  of  cell  lives,  separable  and  dissoluble;  that  even  during  the 
organic  lifetime  it  can  be  increased  or  diminished.  It  is  not  an 
infrangible  integer  which  cannot  be  dissolved,  but  an  aggregation 
of  lesser  lives  which  can  separate,  as  when  a  thousand  people 
gather  in  one  assembly,  and  afterwards  depart. 


136  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

NO  CELLS,  NO  CONSCIOUSNESS 

The  "  cell  doctrine  "  of  life  is  as  old  as  Schleiden,  Schwann  and 
Virchow;  yet  it  seems  never  to  be  fully  understood,  never  com- 
prehended as  to  its  real  significance.  Every  living  organism  is 
composed  of  either  a  single  cell  or  an  assemblage  of  cells.  The 
cell  is  the  only  source  and  seat  of  life  on  the  earth,  the  only  means 
of  sensation,  consciousness  and  self-consciousness;  for  conscious- 
ness enters  only  by  the  door  of  sensation. 

The  evidence  is  overAvhelming  that  nowhere  on  the  earth's  sur- 
face is  there  anything  resembling  consciousness  except  in  and  by 
means  of  this  same  cell-of-life.  The  cell,  as  we  find  it  everywhere, 
is  a  little  self,  a  small,  yet  delicate  organism  in  which  the  elements 
of  sentience,  elements  existing  in  all  matter,  are  raised  up  by  the 
steps  of  organization  to  self -hood  and  self -direction,  that  cell  self- 
hood which  in  the  multicell  rises  by  further  organization  to  self- 
consciousness  and  personality. 

In  the  human  brain  we  have  tract  on  tract  of  cells,  specialized 
and  differentiated  for  varied  functions  of  memory,  comparison, 
imagination,  reason;  all  grouped,  united  and  organized  about  the 
axis  of  a  larger  life;  in  short,  a  complicated,  extended  organization 
of  the  smaller,  simpler  cell  lives;  a  structured  organization  and  a 
form.  None  the  less  all  sensation  there,  all  consciousness,  is  in  the 
cell,  nowhere  else.     No  cells,  no  consciousness. 

How  then  shall  we  define  human  personality?  What  can  it 
be,  but  the  sensation  and  consciousness  of  the  cells,  filling,  flood- 
ing, playing  through  this  form,  this  structured  organization  of 
brain?  It  is  the  confluent  tide  of  cell  lives  which  fills  the  organ- 
ized form,  charges  it  with  emanation  and  sets  up  the  axis  of  the 
o:reater  self-consciousness. 

THE  BIOLOGICAL  DEFINITION  OF  HUMAN 
PERSONALITY 

Instead  of  being  an  indissoluble  entity  then,  a  living  human 
personality,  a  self-conscious  intellect  as  we  know  it,  has  to  be 
described  as  consisting  of  two  factors,  first,  a  structured  organi- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I37 

zation  of  brain  and  of  the  cell  protoplasm,  and  second,  a  confluent 
tide  of  cell  life,  filling  the  structure  with  sensation  and  conscious- 
ness. Devoid  of  the  confluent  cell  life  and  apart  from  it,  there 
remains  but  an  unconscious  structure.  When  the  cells  die  and 
their  metabolism  stops,  sensation  ceases  and  the  factor  for  self- 
consciousness  is  no  longer  supplied.  Both  factors  are  essential 
to  personality  —  the  structured  organization  of  brain  and  of  brain 
cell  protoplasm,  which  has  come  down  to  us  through  a  thousand 
generations,  and  the  confluent  tide  of  cell  life  and  sensation  which 
fills  and  animates  the  structure.  Without  the  cell  factor  we  have 
no  sensation,  no  sense  of  self,  without  the  structured  form,  no 
intelligence  and  experience,  in  a  word,  no  human  intellect.  Yet, 
what  constitutes  intellect  and  personality  in  any  sense  worth  pre- 
serving, may  lie  empty  of  self-sensation,  void  of  self-consciousness, 
as  in  sound  sleep,  or  insensibility  from  a  sudden  blow  on  the  head. 
The  structured  form  is  there  in  the  brain,  but  the  tide  of  cell  life 
no  longer  fills  it  in  the  manner  requisite  to  self-consciousness. 

In  reality,  however,  this  structured  form  is  the  most  important 
part  of  human  personality.  Simple  sensation  to  animate  it  might 
come  from  any  cell-of-life;  but  that  structured  organization  which 
comes  from  ancestry,  is  another  matter.  The  veriest  brute  pos- 
sesses sensation  and  self -consciousness ;  but  the  virtues  of  a  Lin- 
coln or  a  Washington  come  only  through  a  vast  past  life  of  the 
race.  That  form  of  brain,  that  structured  protoplasm,  is  what 
lives  on  from  generation  to  generation.  Not  even  the  worst  freaks 
of  atavism  obliterate  it.  Even  after  dark  ages  of  abeyance,  it  re- 
appears. Probably  no  virtue,  no  fine  trait  of  character  is  ever 
wholly  lost  from  the  brain  of  the  race.  The  animal  brain,  partic- 
ularly the  human  brain,  is  wonderfully  continent  of  these  old  an- 
cestral forms,  or  patterns  of  personality.  From  parent  to  child 
they  are  transmitted  in  ovo,  sometimes  well-nigh  unchanged.  We 
know  as  yet  all  too  few  facts  relative  to  multicellular  reproduction, 
that  esoteric  process  of  involution  by  which  an  adult  animal  fruc- 
tifies in  the  regenerative  tissues  and  —  rather  than  die  —  projects 
itself  forward  from  the  aging  organism  per  angusfias  vias,  to 
re-develop  later  as  a  new  life.  There  have  been  many  theories  of 
gemmules,  plastidules  and  the  germplasm,  theories  still  sub  jiidice, 
or  in  controversy.  A  part  of  the  process  only  is  visible.  But  we 
know  that  it  occurs.     What  is  of  interest  about  it  here,  the  new 


138  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

life,  thus  projected  forward  to  develop  a  new  organism,  takes  witii 
it  from  the  old  one  apparently  all  the  traits  and  characteristics  of 
the  latter,  even  when  they  do  not  reappear  or  figure  largely  in  this 
next  new  life.  We  have  learned  that  they  are  there  quite  the  same 
and  may  rise  into  prominence  in  the  second,  third,  fourth,  or  far- 
future  generation.  It  is  like  a  composite  photograph  of  a  numer- 
ous class,  or  family  group,  which  adds  a  new  individual  to  the 
group  with  every  fresh  generation.  Another  face  enters  to  join 
the  pictured  company  and  with  each  new  face  comes  a  new 
personality  in  the  brain.  They  blend  in  one  picture,  yet  none  the 
less  they  can  be  resolved  into  those  separate  faces  again.  So  of 
the  long  series  of  ancestral  human  personalities ;  they,  too,  are  all 
there  in  the  brain  strata,  and  under  certain  circumstances  can  be 
segregated  individually. 

But  it  seems  to  be  a  law  of  human  personality  that  but  one  at 
a  time  can  rise  to  be  the  ego  of  the  organism,  and  take  control  of 
it.  In  other  words  there  can  be  but  one  ego  in  the  animal  organ- 
ism at  a  time.  When  one  of  the  older,  dormant  personalities  of 
the  past  rises  from  its  racial  sleep  in  the  brain  to  assume  control, 
the  present  incumbent  must  temporarily  abdicate.  This  appears 
to  be  what  sometimes  happens  in  the  case  of  "  mediums,"  passing 
into  the  trance  state.  Some  one  of  the  dormant  personalities 
"  rises  from  the  dead  "  and  assumes  control.  In  hypnosis  it  is  a 
living  personality  that  steps  in  from  without ;  for  this,  too,  may 
happen ;  and  it  is  in  this  that  hypnotism  differs  from  "  spirit  " 
control.  A  dormant  personality  of  the  brain  may  wake  to  the  con- 
trol, or  a  living  personality  may  enter  to  do  so  from  without;  or 
as  is  not  impossible,  some  freakish,  composite  guise  or  "  echo  "  of 
personality  from  out  the  mirrored  ether. 

When  this  wonderfully  structured  brain  which  our  ancestors 
have  transmitted  to  us  —  the  labor  of  a  thousand  centuries  —  is 
studied  in  the  light  of  the  accumulated  facts  of  heredity  and  pro- 
toplasmic inheritance,  the  true  dawn  breaks  on  this  hitherto  dark 
subject  of  human  personality  and  human  life,  past  and  future.  Of 
the  vast  subconscious  life  of  the  brain  we  know  almost  nothing 
as  yet;  for  we  who  are  now  quick,  but  live  on  the  surface  of  it. 

It  is  this  ancestral  brain,  co-related,  lobed  and  convoluted,  with 
its  deep  strata  of  nuclear  cells,  granule  cells,  spindle  cells  and  poly- 
morphous cells,   which   contains   "  the   innumerable   caravan "   of 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 39 

human  personalities  from  the  past,  meaning-  always  this  essential 
second  part  and  factor  of  our  definition.  Like  those  other  deep 
strata  of  the  geologic  earth,  long  eras  of  life  have  laid  them  down, 
and  the  fossils  of  that  life  are  still  there.  The  more  we  cleave  it 
apart,  and  delve  into  it  witli  the  microscope,  the  more  it  suggests 
an  olden  past  life  of  which  these  cell  strata  are  the  repository,  the 
book-stacks  and  the  storehouse. 

It  is  like  some  vast  old  crypt,  but  not  of  dry  bones  or  decay; 
the  ancestral  life,  stored  away  here,  is  still  sweet  and  clean  and 
unresolved.  It  is  only  sleeping,  quietly  sleeping  there,  and  merely 
a  hard  physical  jolt  wiU  sometimes  wake  up  one  of  these  former 
personalities,  to  rise,  resume  cell  sensation  and  cell  consciousness, 
take  command  of  the  present  multicellular  organism  with  its  warm 
metabolism,  and  re-enter  the  realm  of  light ;  —  and  then  we  have 
a  case  of  "  double  consciousness."  For  they  are  all  down  there 
in  those  nuclear  strata,  asleep  with  their  fathers  before  them. 


EXEGI  MONUMENTUM 

Horace's  "  Exegi  monuinentimi  cure  perennius "  embalms  the 
sentiment,  desire  and  hope  of  the  individual  man  in  all  historic 
time,  and  the  better  tlie  man,  the  stronger  his  desire  to  leave  be- 
hind him  some  deathless,  rustless  monument  of  his  personal  Hfe. 
Oftenest,  marble,  hard  granite  and  perennial  bronze  have  been  im- 
pressed to  this  service  to  perpetuate  the  passing,  personal  life  and 
carry  it  forward  to  future  time. 

In  vain.  The  marble  moulds,  the  granite  crumbles,  the  bronze 
rusts  away.  Chronos'  iron  tooth  prevails.  In  all  the  world,  in  all 
this  seething  welter  of  restless  electrons,  no  combination  of  them 
preserves  its  stasis.  No  monumental  substance  stands  the  wear 
and  tear  of  this  oft-smelted  universe's  vast  life. 

None,  even  approximately,  none  save  one.  One  substance  there 
is  which  for  a  hundred  millions  of  years,  at  least,  has  endured, 
while  the  metals  fade  and  rust,  and  archaic  rocks  crumble  and 
vanish,  leaving  neither  sign  nor  trace  behind. 

That  one  unique  and  wonderful  substance  is  the  living  matter 
in  the  brain  cells  of  our  race,  transmitted  to  us  from  out  those  far 
depths  of  antiquity,  when  the  protozoon  —  whence-ever  he  came 


140  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

—  first  stirred  on  the  shores  of  the  primeval  sea.  This  is  the  sub- 
stance which  has  endured  and  will  no  doubt  endure  through  the 
equally  long  epochs  and  eons  of  future  time :  the  substance  which 
grows,  not  wastes,  nor  rusts,  as  centuries  pass,  grows  and  incor- 
porates in  itself  the  record  of  all  the  past. 

Surely,  this  were  that  grand,  enduring  "  brass  "  of  which  to 
fashion  and  chisel  the  longed-for,  rustless  tombstone  of  man.  the 
CCS  pcrcnnius  of  the  ages,  compared  with  which  Cheops'  name  on 
his  pyramidal  syenite  is  as  Keats'  despairing  "  writ  on  water." 
Here  is  the  desiderated  monument  stuff,  fit  to  meet  and  satisfy  the 
aspirations  of  our  race.  It  is  here  and  herein  that  we  may  labor 
to  set  up  each  his  mausoleum  which  shall  live  to  all  human  time, 
though  the  world  stand  to  remotest  ages.  If  latest  researches  in 
psychometry  teach  anything  whatever,  it  is  that  na  impress  of  a 
human  life  is  ever  lost  here.  It  goes  on  in  the  great  formed  and 
formative  aura  of  the  race  life;  it  survives  in  each  individual  life; 
it  helps  shape  and  mould,  for  better  or  worse:  each  new  life  that 
is  born  of  us,  every  future  generation  that  succeeds  us. 

What  awful  yet  divine  glimpses  of  our  personal  responsibility 
shine  forth  through  these  slowly  opening  portals  of  our  later 
knowledge  of  living  matter.  W't  make  our  monument  here  — 
have  always  made  it  —  whether  we  realize  it  or  not.  Every  day 
we  are  rearing  that  monument  for  all  time.  Why  summon  the 
granite  block  ?  Why  supplicate  the  bronze  tablet  ?  Infinitely  more 
enduring,  more  commemorative,  is  this  daily  work  of  our  lives  in 
forming  the  future  brain  of  the  race  and  sustaining  the  aura  of  its 
mind.  A  realization  of  this  is  indeed  the  "  one  thing  needful  "  to 
our  future  ideals  and  ambitions.  Not  a  stone  in  a  graveyard,  to 
lean  and  fall,  but  an  inscription  in  deathless  living  text  on  the 
Brain  of  the  Race.  There  we  each  live  on,  whether  we  wish  it, 
in  our  blindness,  or  not.  There  we  daily  graven  the  merit  or 
demerit  of  our  personal  lives. 


WHERE  IS  SPIRIT-LAND? 

Ever  since  man  first  pondered  the  question,  he  has  1)elieved 
vaguely  that  the  dead,  though  dead,  are  not  wholly  dead,  but 
somewhere,    somehow,    are    resurrectable   and    returnable    to    life. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I4I 

They  are  gone  from  conscious  life,  he  knows,  yet  he  has  always 
felt  that  they  are  but  deeply  asleep  somewhere  and  may  sometime 
wake,  or  be  waked. 

And  that  is  the  true  instinct,  the  etheric  sense  of  the  truth. 
Somewhere  they  sleep.  But  where?  Where  is  their  place  of 
rest?    Where  is  spirit-land? 

The  Jews  said  in  shcol,  the  Greeks  in  the  subterranean  caverns 
of  the  nether  world,  the  Egyptians  in  dim  Amenthe,  the  Hindiis 
in  Nirvana,  the  Christians  in  Heaven  —  or  Hell,  the  Mohamme- 
dans in  Paradise  —  or  Gehenna.  Many  modern  spiritists,  with 
glimpses  of  the  truth,  have  held  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  are 
everywhere  present  about  us.  When  they  have  learned  a  little 
more  of  the  ether,  they  will  people  it  with  spirits  which  they  will 
fondly  and  erroneously  believe  to  be  still  self-conscious  lives. 

There  have  been  philosophers  who  have  theorized  of  a  fourth 
and  even  a  fifth  dimension  of  space,  and  even  of  a  second  dimen- 
sion of  time,  where  dwell  the  spirits  of  the  dead;  astronomers, 
too,  who  have  quite  as  fondly  located  spirit-land  on  other  planets 
of  the  solar  system. 

The  whole  world,  indeed,  has  constantly  asked  the  question, 
Where  is  spirit-land  ?  The  search  for  it  has  been  long.  They  have 
looked  the  universe  over  for  it  —  and  never  found  it. 

And  yet  it  was  so  near  them  all  the  time! 

They  were  carrying  it  around  with  them,  inside  their  own 
skulls ! 

For  this  strata-ed,  structured  human  brain-of-man  is  our  sheol. 
Here  is  that  spirit-land  to  which  we  shall  be  gathered,  garnered 
we  may  say,  where  erelong  we  shall  all  sleep  with  our  fathers. 

Nor  is  it  so  very  small  a  nirvana.  Collectively,  as  a  race,  we 
are  carrying  around  two  millions  tons  weight  of  it  on  our  shoul- 
ders ;  —  and  Dr.  William  Hanna  Thompson  has  assured  us 
that  a  dot  of  protoplasmic  matter,  no  larger  than  a  pin-head,  will 
embody  for  all  time  the  destinies,  past  and  future,  of  a  whole 
genus  of  earth's  fauna. 

We  who  live  in  what  we  term  self-conscious  life,  are  but  tem- 
porary denizens  of  the  outer,  dendritic  cell  layer  of  the  brain.  We 
perceive  little,  remember  little,  of  the  great  past  life  of  that  brain. 
It  is  mostly  subconscious  to  us.  None  the  less  it  is  all  there,  the 
whole  past  history  of  the  genus  ho)iio.     There  are  good  evidences 


142  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

that  no  experience,  nor  memory  of  it  all,  is  ever  lost  It  has  been 
laid  down  in  successive  schemes,  experience-scliemes,  memory- 
schemes,  each  representing  a  generation,  that  is  to  say,  one  per- 
sonality. Each  is  like  some  web  of  lace-work,  once  woven  and 
now  laid  away  in  the  delicate  cell  protoplasm  of  those  granular 
and  nuclear  layers. 

Yet  given  the  requisite  cue,  and  the  whole  fabric  of  that  per- 
sonal life,  with  all  its  traits  and  memories,  may  be  brought  forth 
again  and  find  expression.  It  is  not  a  little  like  those  song-records, 
used  in  the  graphophones  and  pianolas.  The  song  may  be  heard 
again,  if  sound  is  admitted  to  it.  So  of  these  dormant  personal- 
ities of  the  brain;  they  may  live  and  speak  again,  if  the  brain 
cell  life  can  again  be  made  to  play  through  them,  restoring  soisa- 
tion,  self-hood  and  self-consciousness.  Apparently  it  needs  soioe- 
times  but  a  slight  shift  of  the  axis  of  personal  self-consciotrsrcss, 
to  bring  about  a  re-admission  to  the  dormant  scheme  of  the  warm 
tide  of  existent  cell  life.  A  former  personality  of  the  ancestral 
brain  is  thus  revived,  waked  up  and  connected  with  the  metaboHc 
apparatus  of  cell  life.  It  is  here  that  a  "  psychic  "  in  trance  "  con- 
nects "  with  "  control  spirits."  Every  human  brain  is  a  reservoir 
of  such  latent  personalities ;  and  a  good  psychic,  an  honest  "  me- 
dium," is  one  of  those  very  rare,  interesting  instances,  abnormal 
though  it  may  be,  where  one  or  more  of  these  long  "  dead  "  per- 
sonalities rise  into  habitual  control  of  the  existent  organism,  take 
possession  of  it  for  the  time  being,  and  talk  or  write  much  as  this 
same  olden  personality  might  have  done  in  the  past,  i^erhaps  a 
thousand  years  in  the  past.  For  this  ancient  brain  of  ours  carries 
in  it,  potential  and  recoverable,  the  lore  of  all  the  ages  of  man, 
the  forgotten  tongues  of  the  Aryan,  the  astronomical  figures  of 
the  Chaldee.  We  but  live  on  the  outer  surface  of  it.  To  most  of 
us  the  doors  to  its  deep  archives  are  closed.  "  Psychics  "  some- 
times descend  to  them,  ignorantly,  a  httle  wa),  but  are  usually 
obsessed  and  misled  by  erroneous  beliefs  which  render  their  reve- 
lations well-nigh  valueless. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 43 

TO  WHAT  EXTENT  CAN  A   PAST   PERSONALITY   BE 
RAISED  FROM  THE  DEAD? 

An  interesting  speculation  is  ushered  in  by  this  revivification  of 
long  dead  personalities,  domiant  in  the  brain  of  their  descendants, 
in  connection  with  the  Hebraic  doctrine  of  the  resurrection.  Could 
the  personality  of  an  Abraham  be  waked  from  this  his  traditional 
'*  sleep  of  the  dead  "  in  the  brain  of  a  lineal  son  of  the  Patriarch, 
and  re-animated  to  self-consciousness  by  the  conscious  cell-life  of 
that  living  descendant,  be  made  to  speak,  to  feel  and  to  behave 
generally  as  Abraham  once  spoke  and  felt? 

And  if  so,  would  it  be  actually  the  Abraham  who  once  lived  on 
the  Plain  of  Shinar?  Is  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  to  be  thus  verified  in  the  growth  of  human  knowledge  ?  How 
is  the  Pythagorean  faith  in  the  transmigration  of  souls  affected 
by  sucli  scientific  possibilities  of  re-incarnation?  The  dormant 
personality  is  re-clothed  by  cell  sensation  and  brought  back  to 
self-consciousness.     Practically  this  is  re-incarnation. 

It  is  a  strangely  realistic  interpretation  of  the  Hebrew  woman's 
prayer,  "  Give  me  children,  or  I  die,"  and  a  biological  truth  which 
the  daughters  of  the  white  race  in  America  have  great  need  to 
take  to  heart. 

What  a  solemn  sense  of  personal  responsibility  to  one's  fam- 
ily and  one's  race  is  thus  unfolded  to  the  conscience.  To  us  who 
live  in  conscious,  cellular  life  —  each  generation  in  turn  —  is  en- 
trusted the  custody,  the  welfare,  the  very  life  of  our  ancestors, 
equally  with  that  of  our  children  and  our  race  for  the  far  future.  No 
moral  doctrine  of  the  century  equals  it.  If  such  recall  from  the 
dead  be  possible,  it  carries  a  power  for  good,  unequaled  in  the 
tenets  of  religious  creeds.  Its  appeal  is  irresistible  even  with  the 
most  hardened,  the  most  depraved.  It  embodies  the  quintessence 
of  conscience.  He  who  comprehends  it  and  debases  himself,  thus 
betraying  his  great  trust,  must  indeed,  like  Orestes  of  old,  fear 
pursuit  by  the  Furies. 


144  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

SUMMARY  OF   CONCLUSIONS   AS   REGARDS   HUMAN 
PERSONALITY  AND  THE  ETHER  OF  SPACE 

These  conclusions  concerning  the  ether,  etheric  perception  and 
human  personality  were  reached  incidental  to  other  researches. 
They  have  been  sketched  in  so  desultory  a  manner  that  it  may  be 
well  to  restate  them  briefly : 

In  the  light  of  our  growing  knowledge  of  the  ether,  the  words 
"  psychic "  and  "  spiritual "  as  employed  by  spiritists,  must  be 
re-defined,  or  replaced  altogether,  by  the  word  etheric,  since  the 
phenomena  with  which  these  words  have  hitherto  been  associated 
in  a  spiritist  sense,  pertain  wholly  to  the  ether  in  its  intimate  rela- 
tions with  the  cell-of-life.  The  same  is  largely  true  of  the  word 
instinct;  it  stands  for  a  partial  reversion  to  etheric  perception, 
in  place  of  perception  by  the  specialized  sense-organs  of  multi- 
cellular life. 

The  cell-of-life  is  naturally  and  primarily  "  psychic,"  that  is 
etheric,  in  its  mode  of  perception.  The  multicell  has  developed 
specialized  sense-organs  on  which  it  comes  ordinarily  to  depend, 
but  under  abnormal  conditions  it  may  revert  to  that  more  instan- 
taneous, far-seeing  mode  of  perception  by  means  of  the  ether. 
This  reversion  of  the  brain  of  a  psychic  to  ether-perception  is 
what  is  seen  in  clairvoyance,  clairaudience,  mind-reading,  premo- 
nition, etc.,  etc.  An  ancient  and  purely  physical  mode  of  per- 
ception, reverted  to  under  abnormal  conditions.  The  lower  an- 
imals, indeed,  are  more  frequently  "  psychic  "  than  human  beings. 

In  the  light  of  this  our  increasing  knowledge  of  tlie  ether,  too, 
we  learn  that  it  is  constantly  and  profoundly  affected  by  the  cell- 
of-life  which  is  not  only  the  organized  mechanism  through  which 
sentience  and  consciousness  are  raised  up  from  "  the  elements  of 
feeling  "  that  exist  in  unorganized  matter,  but  also  a  chemical 
engine  with  a  considerable  output  of  kinetic  energy.  We  have 
come  to  believe  that  the  ether  is  the  agency  by  means  of  which 
memory  and  mnemonic  impressions  generally  are  transmitted  to 
the  sentient  protoplasm  of  the  cell.  We  find,  too,  that  memory 
is  not  confined  to  cell  protoplasm,  but  that  a  kind  of  memory, 
"  echo,"  or  mirror-picture  of  all  phenomena  is  constantly  present 
in  the  ether  everywhere,  and  that  it  may  be  caught  and  imitated 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  145 

by  matter  when  in  the  nascent,  or  receptive  state,  caught  and 
"  fixed  ''  there,  as  seen  in  the  frost  flowers  on  the  window  pane 
in  winter,  in  crystalHzation,  in  Fata-morgana  apparitions  and  in 
the  mirages  that  play  over  desert  lands. 

We  have  learned  also  that  protoplasmic  matter,  especially  em- 
bryonic protoplasm,  is  ever  in  the  nascent  state,  and  we  have  been 
led  to  form  the  working  hypothesis  that  it  is  the  ether  "  echo  " 
or  ether  ''  memory,"  in  connection  with  the  inherited  plan  in  oz'o, 
which  constitutes  that  formative,  guiding  power  that  underlies 
natural  selection. 

Further  studies  of  the  cell-of-life  have  shown  that  it  gives  forth 
an  emanation,  forming  an  aura,  or  atmosphere,  about  itself ;  and 
that  when  cells  are  organized  in  great  numbers  in  the  brain  of 
man,  this  cell  emanation.  collecti\-ely,  can  be  estimated,  measured 
and  to  some  extent  analyzed.  We  have  evidence  that  it  consists  in 
part  at  least  of  electrons,  that  the  ether  is  involved  with  it  as  a 
vehicle,  and  that  there  is  carried  along  with  it  molecular  matter 
from  the  metabolism  of  the  cell,  matter  which  is  sometimes  visible 
and  phosphorescent. 

We  have  learned  also  that  under  certain  abnormal  conditions 
of  the  brain,  as  seen  in  "  mediums  "  when  in  trance,  this  emana- 
tion is  enormously  increased  in  volume  and  may  become  an  agency 
for  the  transmission  of  kinetic  energy  to  accomplish  levitation  of 
tables  and  other  objects;  also  that  it  may  be  projected  outside 
the  brain  of  the  medium  by  will  power  and  made  to  assume  the 
form  of  human  hands,  human  faces,  etc.,  in  a  word,  "  materiali- 
zations." It  is  probable,  indeed,  that  this  entire  class  of  "  spirit- 
ist "  phenomena  can  be  thus  interpreted ;  and  it  is  wholly  im- 
probable that  self-conscious,  disembodied  intelligences  have  any 
connection  whatever  with  such  manifestations. 

This  conclusion  is  more  certainly  established  from  the  fact  that 
our  increasing  knowledge  of  the  cell-of-life  in  the  brain  has  com- 
pelled a  new  definition  of  human  personality,  one  that  controverts 
in  foto  the  former  conception  of  spiritists,  namely,  that  such  per- 
sonality is  an  infrangible  entity,  detachable  from  the  animal  organ- 
ism at  death,  with  self -consciousness  intact. 

The  definition  of  human  personality  which  our  present  knowl- 
edge of  the  brain  necessitates  is,  in  effect,  that  instead  of  being 
a  permanent  entity,  it  consists  of  two  factors,  first,  a  confluent  tide 


146  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

of  conscious  cell  life  from  the  cell  metabolism,  and  second,  an  or- 
ganized plan,  form,  or  structure  of  the  brain  and  of  the  proto- 
plasm of  the  brain  cells.  It  is  the  former  which  furnishes  the 
factor  of  sensation,  self -hood  and  self -consciousness.  But  it  is 
the  organized  structure,  descending  from  ancestry,  that  furnishes 
the  factor  of  mind,  intellect  and  all  which  makes  personality  intel- 
ligent, worth  possessing,  or  preserving. 

Sensation  and  consciousness  pertain  to  the  cell  and  cell  metab-  . 
olism.  Without  the  confluent  tide  of  cell  life  in  the  brain,  there 
could  be  no  self-consciousness;  without  the  structured  plan,  no 
extended  thought,  no  human  mind.  The  two  factors  go  hand  in 
hand.  Both  are  requisite  to  an  adequate  definition  of  human  per- 
sonality. 

At  the  death  and  dissolution  of  the  animal  body,  this  organized 
structure  which  comes  through  ancestry,  is  obliterated,  and  the 
sensation,  raised  up  to  self-consciousness  in  the  cell,  sinks  back  to 
the  lowly  "  elements  of  feeling." 

What  remains  then  of  that  personality? 

First,  the  offspring,  the  child,  to  which  the  ancestral  personality 
has  gone  forward  through  those  angustias  vias  of  multicellular 
reproduction.  Not  only  is  the  child,  in  and  of  itself,  a  partial 
reduplication  of  the  parents,  but  it  has  latent  in  its  brain  apparently 
all  the  traits  and  tastes,  virtues  and  vices,  of  those  parents;  so 
many  dormant,  potential  personalities  which  under  certain  condi- 
tions may  be  displayed;  or  if  not  displayed  in  this  first  generation, 
they  yet  give  evidence  that  they  are  really  preserved  and  trans- 
mitted by  not  unfrequently  appearing  many  generations  in  the 
future.  Indeed,  they  appear  never  to  be  lost  from  this  amazingly 
receptive  web  of  the  brain  cell  protoplasm.  The  child  is  thus,  for 
a  generation,  the  possessor  and  custodian  of  the  now  unconscious 
personalities  of  the  parents. 

Second,  the  past  personality  remains  and  continues  objectively, 
that  is  to  say  unconsciously,  in  an  "  ether  echo,"  or  mirrored  as 
an  "  ether  memory  "  which  inheres  and  continues  indefinitely.  We 
know  not  how  long.  These  strange  "  memories "  appear  to 
"  loom  "  in  the  ether  and  sometimes  to  stand  in  a  species  of  stasis, 
caught  occasionally  and  *'  fixed  "  in  the  air,  as  apparitions  and 
phantasms. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  ether  is  not  yet  sufficient  to  exhibit  these 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  147 

phenomena  experimentally,  much  less  trace  out  what  secondary 
effects  result  from  them.  Such  phenomena,  however,  are  what 
we  would  be  led  to  predict  from  even  our  present  scanty  knowledge 
of  a  medium  possessing  properties  so  bewildering.  At  present  the 
ether  with  its  possibilities  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  objects 
of  study.  The  writer  is  led  to  believe  that  all  phenomena  now 
deemed  occult  (including  spiritism)  will  here  find  a  purely  phys- 
ical and  rational  explanation.  Everywhere  the  memory  of  past 
life  appears  to  inhere  and  be  reflected  back.  We  cannot  yet  say 
how;  etheric  phenomena  transcend  the  known  laws  of  corpuscular 
and  atomic  matter,  as  light  transcends  sound. 

We  have  to  realize,  too,  that  the  ether  permeates  and  flows 
freely  through  all  solid  matter,  and  that  these  strange  "  memo- 
ries "  are  there,  too,  inhering  and  probably  operative  in  the  very 
warp  and  woof  of  all  substance,  in  air,  in  water,  in  iron,  in  stone. 
Hence  etheric  images  pass  freely  through  house  walls  and  all  ma- 
terial obstructions. 

Not  only  is  personality  transferred  to  offspring.  Every  human 
hfe,  as  it  lives,  imparts  its  image,  as  etheric  memories,  to  all  those 
of  its  own  generation  who  live  about  it.  It  is  pictured  in  the 
brain  of  all  its  contemporaries,  and  lives  on  there,  objectively, 
influencing  their  lives  for  good  or  evil ;  and  thence,  in  effect,  it  is 
flimg  far  forward  to  future  generations.  It  also  lives  on  by  means 
of  the  symbols  of  speech  and  written  language,  as  tradition,  as 
books,  and  in  hterature  generally. 

But  it  is  with  the  effects  of  the  cell-of-life  on  the  ether,  its 
"  echo  "  there,  and  with  the  transfer  of  the  structured  protoplas- 
mic form  of  personality  from  parent  to  child,  from  brain  to  brain, 
down  the  generations  of  the  race,  that  we  are  here  most  directly 
interested.  For  it  is  largely  and  mainly  in  the  germ-plasm  of  the 
race  that  we  survive  personal  death,  enter  into  the  life  of  future 
generations  and  thus  enjoy  a  species  of  dormant  immortality  — 
as  if  asleep  in  the  house  of  our  children. 

It  is  here  that  we  are  gathered  to  our  fathers  and  here  that  we 
shall  dwell  with  our  children  of  the  far  future.  Here  is  our  spirit- 
land,  our  nirvana  of  rest.  We  are  not  banished  to  the  nether  cav- 
erns of  the  earth,  nor  to  far  realms  of  cosmic  space.  We  live  on 
in  the  house  with  our  family  and  our  race,  and  may  even  perhaps, 
on  momentous  occasions,  be  called  to  life  to  give  them   advice 


i48  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

or  counsel,  as  She  of  Endor  recalled  Samuel.  We  are  still  with 
them  and  of  them,  and  if  we  have  done  well  when  in  life  and 
accomplished  much  for  our  race,  we  shall  be  exalted.  Though 
dead  and  now  personally  unconscious,  we  shall  be  still  helping  on. 
We  are  not  put  away,  nor  left  eternally  behind  in  the  tomb.  We 
go  forward  with  our  kind,  bearing  our  share  in  the  greater  life 
of  kin  and  country. 

Better  than  this  we  who  die,  cannot  hope.  In  this  still  imper- 
fect life  of  ours  we  grow  tired  in  time  and  sleep  with  our  fathers, 
yet  we  sleep  not  in  the  grave,  but  in  the  brain  of  the  race,  and  as 
science  grows,  may  possibly  know  a  species  of  resurrection,  if  our 
descendants  shall  desire  to  call  us  up,  or  can  tolerate  our  old-time 
speech. 

More  than  this  we  cannot  yet  hope.  Perhaps  it  is  enough  for 
us  who  are  still  so  imperfect.  Enough,  till  the  grander  day  comes 
when  our  children,  transfigured  and  perfected  in  their  organisms 
by  the  growth  of  knowledge,  shall  cease  to  die.  But  even  in  that 
grander  day  we  shall  be  with  them.     We  shall  be  there. 

CONCLUSIONS  WHICH  HAVE  COME  AS  A  RELIEF 

This  definition  of  human  personality  and  these  intimations  as 
to  its  fate  and  destiny  in  the  universe  will  not.  as  I  know,  prove 
pleasing  to  many  spiritists.  The  whole  world,  indeed,  sighs  for 
a  blissful  personal  immortality,  still,  alas,  unearned,  unachieved. 
The  hope  of  a  beatified  future  life,  when  disembodied  from  the 
organism  by  death,  has  been  long  fostered,  cruelly  fostered  in  view 
of  the  inevitable  awakening  in  the  light  of  greater  knowledge. 
Perhaps  it  was  necessary  thus  to  tide  the  race  over  a  long,  hard 
era  of  human  evolution,  otherwise  too  hopeless.  None  the  less 
cruel  when  we  wake  from  the  dream. 

The  sacerdotal  promise  that  the  "  good  "  who  pay  tithes,  will 
be  gloriously  rewarded  when  they  die.  goes  not  far  beyond  church 
doors.  The  student  of  life,  nature  and  the  greater  world  has 
ever  seen  little  enough  to  reassure  him  in  the  thought  that  his 
personality  may  possibly  survive  death  and  live  on,  conscious  or 
semi-conscious,  adrift  and  a  wanderer  "  upon  this  hurrying,  heav- 
ing sea  of  matter  illimitable,"  with  its  vast  catastrophes  of  cosmic 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I49 

heat  and  cold.  Little  enough  for  hope  or  faith  in  the  magnificent 
yet  awful  fires  of  far-blazing  suns,  or  in  the  rigor  mortis  of  those 
dark,  ir.visible,  dead  orbs  which,  eon  after  eon,  swing  ponderously 
on  their  joyless  orbits  through  the  outer  reaches  of  space.  The 
earth,  we  are  told,  will  one  day  join  this  dark  procession  of  dead 
orbs.  One  could  picture  it,  still  wheeling  onward,  bearing  on  its 
lifeless  bosom  the  wretched,  self-conscious  "  souls  "  of  the  race 
that  once  lived  here  in  the  flesh. 

"From  dawn  to  dawn  we  drifted  on  and  on, 
Not  knowing  whither,  nor  to  what  dark  end." 

—  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich. 

To  the  present  writer  therefore  the  above  conclusions,  touching 
human  personality  and  its  fate  in  the  universe,  have  come  as  a 
relief  from  many  apprehensions,  earlier  in  life. 

"  Survival  is  a  hypothesis  which  people  who  do  not  stop  to 
reflect,  accept  complacently.  But  the  philosopher  is  a  little  more 
reserved. 

"  Life  is  painful  enough  not  to  give  us  any  brilliant  idea  of  what 
is  to  follow,  and  it  is  w^ith  something  akin  to  terror  that  I  figure 
the  possibilities  that  I,  my  ego,  my  consciousness,  can  have  no 
end  and  will  live  eternally.  Who  knows  in  that  case  what  is 
reserved  for  me?  We  are  all,  all  such  deplorable  cowards,  so 
ridiculously  feeble  in  the  face  of  the  immensity  of  the  universe, 
that  we  have  everything  to  fear  from  the  colossal  forces,  perhaps 
unjust,  perhaps  absurd,  which  will  have  the  power,  perhaps  eter- 
nally, to  submit  us  to  tortures  and  to  misery. 

"  Happily  this  survival  is  improbable."  —  Charles  Richet. 


THE   INTIMATE   CAUSES   OF   OLD  AGE 
AND   ORGANIC   DEATH 

In  this  first  half  of  the  twentieth  century  we  are  waking  to  the 
greatest,  the  gravest  problem  which  has  ever  engaged  the  attention 
of  men,  the  problem  of  controlling  life  and  prolonging  it  at  will. 
As  the  first  step  to  this,  we  seek  to  learn  the  intimate  causes  of 
old-aging  and  organic  death. 

Strictly  speaking,  medicine,  all  medical  practice,  is  an  effort  to 
prolong  life,  or  postpone  the  immediate  dissolution  of  the  human 
body.  From  the  thirteenth  to  the  fourteenth  centuries,  too,  while 
chemistry  was  still  nascent,  there  were  mystic  alchemists  and  al- 
leged Rosicrucians  who  sought  to  grasp  a  sporadic  immortality  by 
elixirs  and  strange  decoctions.  But  not  until  this  last  quarter  of  a 
century  has  the  grander  idea  been  grasped,  that  prolonged  life, 
looking  toward  immortal  life,  will  be  the  natural  outcome  of  the 
evolution  of  life  on  the  earth. 

It  was  an  idea  that  could  hardly  have  found  place  until  the 
Origin  of  Species  and  the  Descent  of  Man  were  written,  since  it 
is  the  logical  complement  and  sequence  of  these  doctrines  of 
nature.  It  could  hardly  have  come  before,  save,  perhaps,  as 
visional  in  the  brain  of  a  philosopher.  But  following  the  epoch 
of  Darwin,  Huxley  and  Tyndall  in  England;  of  Humboldt, 
Goethe,  Helmholtz,  H^eckel,  Weissmann  in  Germany,  and  their 
biological  contemporaries  in  France,  America  and  other  lands, 
the  achievement  of  immortal  life  follows  as  the  keystone  of  the 
arch,  the  climax,  the  perfected  fruit  and  flower  of  the  evolution 
of  life.  Follows  from  the  natural  growth  of  knowledge,  present- 
ing itself  in  the  light  of  a  great  achievement.  For,  with  the  dawn 
of  this  new  century,  we  have  wakened  to  the  hard  fact  that  what- 
ever we  have  here  on  the  earth  we  must  achieve  for  ourselves. 

More  life,  longer,  happier,  personal  life,  idealized  as  immortal 
life,  has  been  the  desire  of  man  from  earliest  ages.     It  is  the  voice 

150 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I5I 

of  nature  —  nature  that  everywhere  contends  that  to  Hve  is 
better  than  to  die;  and  that  life  even  under  hard  conditions  is 
worth  preserving.  This  is  the  "  instinct  "  of  the  cell-of-life,  both 
as  a  protozoon  and  when  united  and  organized  in  the  metazoon; 
it  is  the  voice  of  the  cell,  heard  crying  up  from  its  lowly  depths 
in  the  tissues  of  the  organism.  It  is  the  faith  of  the  subconscious 
life  in  us. 

Ever  since  neolithic  days  there  are  evidences  that  human  beings 
have  regarded  death  with  repugnance  and  fear,  and  have  made 
rude  efforts,  looking  to  salvation.  The  primitive  religious  cults 
all  breathed  this  grief  at  death,  this  desire  for  more  life. 

But  for  the  last  ten  thousand  years  human  beings,  generally, 
have  despaired  of  escape  from  death  by  self -effort,  and  made  their 
appeal  to  supernatural  powers.  In  their  ignorance  of  nature  and 
the  causes  of  natural  phenomena,  belief  in  spirit  life  took  form : 
the  shade,  the  psyche,  the  umbra,  the  manes,  the  wraith,  the  ghost. 

Full  of  doubt  and  of  fear  as  the  belief  was,  it  yet  proved  a 
species  of  solace.  For  the  hope  of  more  life  has  never  been  given 
up,  never  will  be  given  up;  but  as  death  appeared  inevitable,  our 
far  human  ancestors  comforted  themselves  with  a  vague  faith  in 
the  supernatural  The  comfort  was  hazy;  the  faith  was  ever  in- 
firm; yet  the  sick  and  dying  found  a  nebulous  solace  in  it;  death 
was  a  little  easier. 

Sacerdos  entered,  put  on  his  robe  and  took  charge  of  the 
vagrant  belief.  What  had  been  merely  a  fitful  hope  was  exploited 
in  a  creed,  with  doctrines.  Rite  and  ritual  were  prescribed, 
sacrifices  enjoined,  and  tithes  collected.  Reason  and  conscience 
were  borne  down  by  the  voice  of  sacerdotal  authority,  nether 
worlds  for  torture  were  portrayed,  and  blind  faith  exacted  under 
ban  and  penalty.  Fane,  shrine,  temple,  mosque,  and  cathedral 
were  reared,  and  vast  guilds  of  priesthood  organized. 

That  was  the  price,  the  penalty,  which  humanity  paid  for  long- 
ing after  more  life,  for  believing  that  somehow  there  would  be 
immortal  life  somewhere.  We  should  fix  our  attention,  not  on  the 
errata  of  creed  and  religion,  but  on  the  nature  of  this  great  Hope 
of  the  human  heart,  the  Hope  that  inspired  it  all. 

For,  if  human  beings  had  all  along  been  persuaded  with  cer- 
tainty that  this  earthly  life  of  three  score  and  ten  years  was  all 


15-2  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

to  which  they  could  attain,  there  would  have  been  no  religion, 
no  priest.  It  was  the  longing  for  more  life  which  made  religion 
possible  in  human  history. 

Sacerdos  proved  the  greatest  of  hypnotists.  Humanity  passed 
into  the  sleep  of  the  creeds,  with  its  phantasmagoria  of  gods  and 
devils,  nether  worlds  and  upper  worlds,  limboes,  purgatories,  tor- 
ture-hells, and  gaudy-golden  heavens ! 

A  long,  wild,  troubled  night  of  the  human  brain. 

It  is  from  this  spell  of  indoctrination,  this  trance  of  dogmatism, 
that  we  are  now-  waking,  waking  in  tlie  clearer  light  of  our  grow- 
ing knowledge  of  nature. 

Classic  fable  records  the  catastrophe  of  the  Earth-born  who, 
rashly  importunate,  strove  to  scale  Heaven;  and  Hindu  sages  have 
taught  that  the  Lords  of  Life  and  Death  have  jealously  defined 
their  realms  and  shut  the  doors,  lest  mortals  pass  the  forbidden 
thresholds;  that  in  the  present  orbited  order  of  matter  and  tlie 
cosmos,  death  must  follow  fast  on  life,  till  the  order  ends;  till 
orbital  motion  unlooses  its  swift  arcs  and  the  bright,  huge-grown 
orbs  rarefy  in  the  fire-dust  of  another  universal  nebula.  Not  till 
then  may  the  Lords  of  Life  and  Death  loose  the  bonds  of  death. 

Yet  even  in  most  ancient  days  there  lived  a  Prometheus,  an 
^Esculapius,  an  Epicurus. 

"  Him  neither  fear  of  the  gods,  nor  thunderbolts,  intimidated, 
nor  portents  of  the  skies,  but  rather  roused  the  innate  courage 
of  his  soul,  that  he  should  be  the  first  to  break  down  the  jealously 
guarded  portals." 

What  man  has  dared,  man  will  dare  again  and  more.  "  The 
bold  breed  of  lapetus  presses  on,  unabashed,  with  fa<:e  set  to  the 
dangers  of  an  unknown  future."  Across  the  gulf  of  more  than 
two  millenniums,  the  hardy  courage,  the  bold  initiative,  of  these 
great-hearted  ones  of  old,  lends  inspiration.  The  breed  survives, 
the  breed  that  brought  down  fire  from  the  skies,  that  raised  the 
dead.  That  is  ever  the  scientific  spirit,  the  spirit  that  came  from 
partaking  of  the  Tree  of  Knowledge,  the  spirit  that  will  accept 
nothing  less  than  an  untrammeled  liberty  to  seek  knowledge  and 
use  it 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 53 

THE  METCHNIKOFF  THEORY  OF  OLD  AGE 

Passing  over  the  theories  and  beHefs  as  to  old  age  and  death 
in  the  past  —  beHefs  connected  with  the  reHgions  —  it  will  be 
worth  while  first  to  make  a  resume  of  existent  knowledge  and 
views  on  the  subject. 

So  few  persons  actually  die  of  "  old  age,"  it  has  often  been 
denied  that  such  cause  of  death  really  exists.  More  than  seventy 
per  cent,  of  all  deaths  is  from  acute  or  chronic  invasions  of  the 
disease-producing  bacteria,  either  sudden,  sharp  attacks,  or  pro- 
longed sieges.  From  birth  to  advanced  age,  the  human  organism 
is  continuously  invaded,  assaulted  and  preyed  upon  by  noxious 
unicellular  life. 

In  time,  these  multiplied  assaults,  and  the  damage  resultant 
from  them,  inaugurate  very  complex,  far-reaching  complications, 
difficult  to  trace  and  estimate.  For  an  organ,  or  tissue,  enfeebled 
by  microbic  attacks,  gives  forth  an  altered,  inferior  product  which 
in  turn  embarrasses  and  lowers  the  vital  tone  of  other  organs  and 
tissues.  Thus  the  entire  organism  is  progressively  impaired  and 
depressed  from  normal  function.  In  this  condition  it  is  less  re- 
sistant to  the  never-ceasing  attack  from  without;  for  a  high  vital 
tonicity  is  the  organism's  natural  defense.  As  years  pass  it  be- 
comes impossible  to  calculate  from  cause  to  effect  the  damage 
done  by  bacteria. 

It  has  been  held,  too,  that  the  roaming  white  cells  or  corpuscles 
of  the  blood  sometimes  assume  the  role  of  intra-organic  assailants ; 
—  and  this  brings  us  to  consider  the  Metchnikoff  theory  of  old- 
aging,  namely,  that  after  middle  age,  these  leucocytes,  now  known 
as  phagocytes,  begin  to  prey  on  the  more  highly  differentiated 
cells  of  the  stable  tissues,  bone,  muscle,  skin,  etc.,  and  even  on 
the  neurons  of  the  brain  and  cord,  to  the  extent  that  a  gradual 
wasting  away  ensues,  with  the  consequent  phenomena  of  old  age. 

Professor  Metchnikoff  distinguished  two  classes  of  phagocytes, 
the  macrophages  and  microphages,  the  latter  smaller  than  the 
former,  having  extensible  nuclei  which  permit  them  to  pass  freely 
through  all  the  tissues.  It  is  to  the  more  voracious  macrophages, 
however,  which  are  essentially  minute  animals,  that  the  damage 
to  the  organic  tissues  in  advanced  life  is  chiefly  due:    they  turn 


154  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

cannibals,  so  to  speak,  and  devour  the  cells  of  the  associated 
tissues;  and  the  cause  of  this  unnatural  perversion  of  appetite, 
or  morale,  is  attributed  to  poisons  of  the  nature  of  ptomaines, 
produced  by  several  orders  of  putrefactive  bacteria  which,  as  life 
advances,  find  lodgment  all  along  the  alimentary  tract,  becoming 
"  naturalized  "  there  in  immense  numbers. 

Professor  Metchnikoff  saw  reason  to  hope  that  these  invasions 
of  putrefactive  bacteria  may  be  combated  by  ingestion  of  the 
kefir  microbe,  found  in  specially  soured  milk.  He  also  believed 
that  the  cells  of  all  the  tissues  may  be  reinforced  by  substances  of 
the  nature  of  se?'uins,  obtained  by  the  now  familiar  methods  of 
inoculation  of  the  horse  and  other  animals. 

As  a  result  of  all  his  studies  and  discoveries.  Professor  Metch- 
nikoff  announced  his  belief  that  the  present  span  of  human  life 
may  be  prolonged  sixty  years ;  that  the  healthy  working  period 
of  middle  age  may  extend  considerably  past  a  century,  thus  placing 
himself  in  harmony  with  Buff  on,  who  believed  that  the  natural 
lifetime  of  man  was  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  years. 


OLD  AGE   FROM   ORGANIC   DISHARMONY 

But  aside  from  these  alleged  ravages  of  phagocytes,  there  are 
functional  causes  of  organic  decline  which  come  from  lack  of 
co-ordination  and  co-operation  in  the  ensemble  of  organs  and 
apparatuses  of  the  body. 

To  make  this  quite  plain  we  must  conceive  of  the  organism 
as  made  up  of  thirty  or  more  groups  or  differentiations  of  cells : 
bone  cells,  muscle  cells,  liver  cells,  lung  cells,  renal  cells,  epithelial 
cells,  blood  cells,  nerve  and  brain  cells;  in  a  word,  all  the  diversely 
specialized  tracts  and  groups  of  tissue  cells  which  together  form 
the  animal  body  and  are  necessary  to  that  grand  co-operative 
effort,  exhibited  in  a  human  life. 

There  must  be  a  stomach,  a  liver,  a  pancreas,  etc.,  for  digestion; 
lungs  for  oxygenation ;  kidneys  for  elimination ;  and  blood  for 
the  further  transformation  and  transportation  of  the  food  to  all 
the  various  groups  of  cells.  All  must  be  fed  every  second.  Each 
organ  and  apparatus  produces  a  different  product;  and  all  must 
blend  and  labor  together  in  a  kind  of  organic  rhythm,  balance,  and 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 55 

counterbalance.  And  this  rhythm  and  counterbalance  are  very 
nicely  and  delicately  adjusted,  so  much  so,  that  the  least  aberration 
or  dereliction  from  duty  and  function  disorders  the  organism. 
So  much  so,  that  it  is  the  highest  art  of  physiology  to  watch  over 
the  organic  entity  and  preserve  the  balance  of  organic  interaction. 
But  as  years  pass,  one  organ,  or  another,  or  many,  tend,  from 
the  wear  and  tear  of  life  as  we  lead  it,  to  become  impaired  and 
disabled.  There  are  deposits  of  "  formed  matter,"  diminution 
of  the  number  of  cells  from  inflammations  and  poisonous  inges- 
tions. One  organ  or  another  thus  fails  to  do  its  part,  the  balance 
is  lost,  vicarious  action  begins;  what  we  term  the  "  constitution  "  is 
broken  up  and  discordant  action  ensues.  Most  persons  die  of  this 
organic  discord. 


OLD  AGE  FROM  INVISIBLE  DIRT  PARTICLES 

A  number  of  years  ago,  the  startling  statement  was  put  for- 
ward, that  organic  decline,  ending  in  death,  comes  from  a  pro- 
gressive asphyxiation  of  the  tissue  cells;  that  after  adult  Hfe,  we 
slowly  suffocate,  from  a  thickening  and  hardening  of  the  mem- 
branes of  the  alveolar  sacs  of  the  lungs,  oxygen  no  longer  passing 
freely  in,  nor  carbon  dioxide  out.  The  hardening  of  the  alveolar 
membrane  is  aggravated  from  impregnation  by  minute  dirt  par- 
ticles in  respired  air ;  it  being  a  well-established  fact  that  the  lungs 
are  progressively  discolored  from  infancy  to  old  age;  and  that  the 
lungs  of  certain  craftsmen,  stone- workers,  dry  grinders,  and 
others,  are  very  palpably  thus  impregnated. 

As  a  proximate  cause  of  organic  decline,  there  must  be  some- 
thing in  this  hypothesis,  which  will  have  to  be  reckoned  with  in 
future  efforts  to  alleviate  the  causes  of  old  age.  But  it  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  we  are  still 
left  to  inquire  why  otherwise  than  by  impregnation  with  par- 
ticles of  dirt,  the  alveoli  become  hardened,  lifeless  sacs,  im- 
pervious to  gases,  instead  of  the  living,  pervious  membrane  of 
childhood.  And  this  leads  to  casual  mention  of  a  theory  of  old- 
aging,  suggested  from  this  laboratory  in  1896.  namely,  the  theory 
that  the  cells  of  all  the  tissues  are  slowly  impregnated,  embar- 
rassed,  and   killed    out   by   invisible   dirt    particles    which   are    in- 


156  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

gested  with  our  food,  enter  the  blood  plasma,  and  finally  reach  the 
cell  by  absorption. 

Dirt,  which  has  been  well  defined  as  "  matter  in  the  wrong 
place,"  is  commonly  supposed  to  be  a  molar  condition  of  terres- 
trial matter  which  does  not  prevail  nor  exist  in  the  molecular 
realm.  Hence,  by  virtue  of  this  molecular  exclusion  and  the 
elective  power  of  living  matter  to  choose  and  select  such  particles 
as  it  pleases  for  its  nutrition,  the  protoplasmic  cell  has  been 
presumed  to  be  in  the  "  chemically  pure  "  state.  There  is  reason 
to  fear,  however,  that  such  an  assumption  may  not  be  strictly 
accurate. 

Only  a  microscopist  knows  the  full  bitterness  of  the  life  struggle 
with  dirt.  It  is  doubtful  whether  even  a  gas  can  be.  or  at  least 
has  been,  generated  chemically  pure,  so  omnipresent  is  dirt. 
Dirt  is  Nature's  heterodoxy. 

The  animal  organism  is  a  great  destroyer  of  dirt;  that  is  to 
say,  the  various  ferments  and  "  juices,"  which  it  is  the  life  work 
of  many  groups  of  the  somatic  cells  to  secrete,  act  chemically 
on  dirt  as  well  as  on  true  food,  on  innutritions  as  well  as  nutri- 
tious substances,  to  break  them  down  to  the  elemental  condition. 
Having  passed  the  digestive  tract,  too,  and  entered  the  blood 
plasma,  still  further  reduction  and  elimination  take  place,  before 
the  highly  rectified  particles  go  to  the  cells  of  the  nobler  tissues 
and  organs. 

In  an  adolescent  organism,  normal,  healthy,  and  strong,  this 
eliminative  process  is  practically  adequate.  Adventitious  sub- 
stances are  expelled  or  broken  down  and  resolved  chemically. 

But  in  older  organisms,  during  periods  of  weakened  action,  the 
process  of  resolution  is  less  complete ;  microscopic  dirt  may  accu- 
mulate in  enfeebled  cells.  If  not  dirt,  what  is  that  darker-tinted 
residuum  in  old  protoplasm? 

Is  there  dirt  in  the  blood?  Or  rather,  to  how  great  an  extent 
is  the  blood  a  dirty  liquid?  In  other  words,  is  dirt  taken  up, 
associated  with  nutritious  particles,  by  the  absorbents  and  lacteals? 

We  know  that  the  fine  particles  of  inorganic  substances,  ad- 
ministered as  medicines  and  poisons,  pass  readily  into  the  blood, 
and  speedily  enter  the  protoplasm  of  brain  and  muscle  cells.  In 
the  examination  of  old  amceb?e,  which  are  nourished  in  dirty 
water,  we  see  a  great  deal  of  this.     Under  high  power  the  same 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 57 

is  discernible  in  a  culture  of  bacteria,  which  can  be  killed  out  by 
an  admixture  of  dirt  in  the  fluid. 

It  is  not  of  the  chemical  action  of  inorganic  particles  in  the 
protoplasm  of  the  cells  that  we  are  here  treating,  however,  but 
of  their  merely  negative  behavior,  or  presence  as  dirt.  A  particle 
of  arsenic,  antimony,  or  iron  may  excite  protoplasmic  action  which 
may  speedily  result  in  its  expulsion,  resolution,  or  encystment, 
where  a  merely  reactionless  particle  of  silica,  or  lime,  might  re- 
main as  an  obstruction. 

The  question  here  raised,  as  regards  dirt,  is  whether  minute 
particles  of  inorganic  matter,  or  obdurate  organic  matter,  entering 
the  plasma  of  the  blood,  find  ultimate  lodgment  in  the  cells,  and 
remaining  there  undissolved,  chemically  unassimilated,  or  un- 
expelled,  give  rise  to  those  aspects  which  distinguish  aged  from 
young  cells.  Are  accumulations  of  microscopic  dirt  in  the  cells 
one  characteristic  of  cell  old  age?  Is  all  organic  life  from  infancy 
to  old  age  and  death  a  struggle  with  dirt? 

But  while  the  dirt  hypothesis  of  old  age  contains  a  scintilla  of 
truth,  it  must,  like  the  foregoing,  be  ranked  with  proximate  rather 
than  with  primary  causes  of  old-aging. 


DR.   EVANS'   EARTHY   SALTS   THEORY  OF   OLD   AGE 

Dr.  De  Lacy  Evans  also  believed  that  old-aging  resulted  from 
accumulations  of  ''  earthy  salts,"  largely  phosphate  of  calcium 
and  silica,  in  the  tissues,  and  also  the  unregulated  wasting  of  the 
cell  protoplasm  by  oxygen.  This  opinion  has  gone  the  rounds  of 
both  medical  and  popular  journals,  with  variations.  We  now 
know  that  such  earthy  salts,  to  some  extent  and  in  some  tissues, 
at  certain  stages  of  life,  do  accumulate  in  a  way  to  embarrass  the 
cell  life  and  to  weaken  the  tissue.  But  this  condition  is  far  from 
being  constant,  or  continuous,  or  secularly  progressive.  It  is 
incidental  and  often  associated  with  microbic  invasions.  As  to 
the  undue  wasting  of  the  cellular  protoplasm  by  oxygen,  that  is 
largely  a  m}'th ;  a  far  greater  difficulty  in  old  organisms  is  to  get 
oxygen  to  the  cells  at  all;  they  smother  for  want  of  it. 


1=)S  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

OLD  AGE  FRO^I  BLURRING  OF  THE  BRAIN 

An  hypothesis  of  the  old-aging  of  the  nervous  system  and  cere- 
bral tissue  of  man  has  also  been  advanced  from  the  progressive 
effects  of  continuous  or  oft-repeated  mnemonic  and  sensory  im- 
pressions in  the  protoplasmic  substances  of  the  brain  and  minor 
nen'e  centers. 

Memory,  experience,  and  the  growth  of  the  intellect  depend 
on  impressions  from  the  external  world  which  come  to  the  brain 
through  the  organs  of  special  sense  and  the  general  sensibility, 
and  remain  there  as  pictures.  Such  impressions,  or  pictures,  are 
believed  to  be  physically  inwrought  in  the  sentient  substance  by 
something  akin  to  dynamic  action,  and,  as  is  well  known,  will 
remain  there,  mentally  recognizable,  for  many  decades.  From 
such  portraiture  of  the  external  world,  physically  impressed  in 
the  material  substance  of  the  brain,  we  have  what  is  commonly 
termed,  experience.  This  experience,  however,  is  something  more 
than  an  accumulation  of  impressions  or  pictures;  for  it  is  accom- 
panied by  the  formation  of  opinions  and  intellectual  growth. 
There  is  assimilation  of  the  collected  data  as  well  as  mere  accu- 
mulation; growth  of  the  garner  itself  into  an  organic  sentient 
whole,  its  substance  being  arranged,  moulded,  or  impressed  in  such 
a  degree,  that  one  writer  has  not  hesitated  to  define  the  "  soul  " 
as  "  the  form  of  the  organism." 

It  is  a  well-known  fact,  moreover,  that  the  frequent  repetition 
of  the  same  impressions,  as  of  sensory  experiences,  scenes,  and 
sounds,  has  a  marked  tendency  to  dull  our  sensibility  to  them. 
Equally  well  observed,  too,  is  the  loss  and  confusion  of  memory 
in  advancing  life. 

Hence,  the  inference  that  the  constant  repetition  of  impressions 
and  the  continuous  bepicturing  of  the  brain  substance  with 
mnemonic  imageiy  has  its  natural,  physical  limits  which  cannot 
be  long  outrun  without  utter  confusion  and  blurring  of  the 
material  medium,  as  when  one  picture  is  printed  upon  and  over 
another.  And  the  conclusion  derived,  touching  long  life,  has 
been  that  a  lifetime  greatly  exceeding  seventy-five  years  must,  of 
necessity,  result  in  mental  dullness  and  confusion  of  thought. 

Thomas  Parr,  however,  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  fifty- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 59 

two,  is  alleged  to  have  been  "  bright  "  and  normal  as  to  "  all  his 
faculties."  Henry  Jenkins,  of  Yorkshire,  England,  "  distinctly 
remembered  "  the  battle  of  Flodden  Field,  fought  one  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  years  previously.  Robert  Evans,  of  Spitalfields, 
"  clearly  recollected  "  the  execution  of  Charles  I.,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-two  years  before. 

What  is  known  as  to  this  subject  goes  to  show  that  if  the  data 
of  experience  are  normally  assimilated  with  one's  existent  knowl- 
edge and  incorporated  as  such  knowledge  in  the  mind,  no  con- 
fusion will  result  from  their  progressive  accumulation. 

In  the  aged,  too,  recollections  of  youthful  years  often  appear 
to  be  revived  and  to  grow  vivid,  although  it  is  a  matter  of  com- 
mon experience  that  our  memory  of  past  events  fades  with  the 
lapse  of  time. 


OLD  AGE  FROM  LACK  OF  INCENTIVE  TO  LIVE 

Closely  associated  with  the  above  theory  of  old-aging  is  the 
psychic  theory,  namely,  that  we  age  and  die  because  after  the 
purely  animal  or  sensory  cycle  of  brain  development  is  accom- 
plished in  mating  and  procreation,  there  follows  a  period  or  con- 
dition of  non-development.  A  new,  higher  cycle  of  mind  growth 
is  not  initiated,  and  does  not  begin,  with  its  new  interests,  new 
ambitions  and  fresh  incentives  to  live  and  act.  The  brain  neu- 
rons do  not  take  a  fresh  start  to  live,  and  hence  the  stasis  of 
advanced  age  ensues,  with  its  common  conviction  that  life  has  been 
lived,  and  that  naught  remains  but  to  exist  for  a  few  years  more 
and  die. 

According  to  this  view,  if  it  were  the  fixed  belief  of  human 
beings,  the  current  faith,  that  after  the  age  of  forty-five,  a  new 
cycle  of  life  was  to  begin,  a  new,  later  course  of  studv  and  prep- 
aration for  another  life  effort  would  be  inaugurated;  and  if 
the  world  and  the  social  system  offered  a  field  for  this  (as  in 
future  it  will  do),  then  the  stasis  of  advanced  life  would  not  set 
in;  human  beings  at  fifty  would  be  seen  brightening  up  for  a 
higher,  stronger  life,  with  better,  loftier  ideals. 

The  chief  obstacle  to  this  at  present  is  not  that  these  new 
cycles  of  brain  development  cannot  be  initiated,  but  that  the  world  " 


l6o  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

and  society  offer  no  field  for  it ;  the  hostile  presence  of  the  younger 
generation  pushes  the  adult  generation  off  the  stage  of  life.  \\  hat 
is  needed  for  prolonged  life  of  the  individual  is  field  for  him  to 
live  and  develop;  in  a  word,  incentive  to  and  opportunity  for  a 
greater  life. 

We  have  abundant  evidence  in  numerous  observed  instances, 
that  at  the  age  of  fifty,  sixty,  or  eighty,  the  human  brain  may 
enter  on  a  new  curriculum  of  study,  growth  and  achievement;  and 
that,  pari  passu  with  this  new  effort,  the  cell  life  of  the  whole 
organism  has  been  notably  quickened  and  strengthened.  For  it  is 
ever  the  brain  life  which  cjuickens,  sustains  and  maintains  the  life 
of  the  other  organs  and  apparatuses  of  the  animal  organism. 

A  provisional  importance  must  therefore  be  attributed  to  the 
argument  for  the  psychic  cause  of  old  age.  To  the  writer  it  is 
at  least  apparent  that  the  first  step  toward  the  achievement  of 
deathless  life  will  be  from  the  psychic  side. 

The  assumption  that  the  brain,  progressively,  is  dulled  by  multi- 
plex mnemonic  impressions,  founds  on  the  idea  that  the  brain  is 
like  a  photographic  plate  or  film.  \Miereas,  what  we  know  of  the 
brain  neurons  leads  us  to  conclude  that  there  is  little  or  no 
analogy  of  this  kind;  that  the  building  up  of  a  personal  intellect 
bears  little  resemblance  to  photography.  A  human  intellect,  with 
memory,  implies  a  co-related,  co-operative  effort  on  the  part  of 
many  millions  of  cells,  acting  together,  pooling  their  cell  lives 
about  a  personal  axis.  Each  cell  is  thus  stimulated  to  live  in  a 
certain  way,  rather  than  stamped  by  a  photographic  picture  from 
without.  The  cell  contents,  or  sentient  substance  of  each  cell, 
is  in  a  state  of  constant  flux  and  mutation,  replaced  every  second 
by  fresh  particles,  not  "  fixed  "  as  in  a  photograph.  An  intellect 
is,  therefore,  a  certain  manner  or  mode  of  cell  life  relatively  to  the 
other  cells  of  the  entire  brain,  not  a  series  of  photographic  plates, 
packed  away  in  the  brain.  The  instances  of  double  personality, 
double  consciousness,  and  recurrent  personality,  indicate  that  when, 
from  any  cause,  the  first  or  former  personality  ceases,  a  second 
personality  may  begin,  as  if  about  a  new  personal  axis,  and  go  on 
to  develop  another  intellect  of  the  1)rain  cells,  quite  as  if  the  first 
had  never  existed. 

It  is,  therefore,  fair  to  infer  that  if,  at  the  age  of  fifty  or  sixty, 
it  was  the  custom  of  human  beings  to  enter  on  a  new  cycle  of 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  l6l 

brain  life,  and  there  were  opportunity  and  social  field  for  it,  a 
new  axis  of  personality  would  slowly  take  the  place  of  the  old, 
and  that  the  cell  life  of  the  brain  would  arrange  itself  about  it, 
quite  as  readily  as  if  no  former  development  had  taken  place. 
The  problem  of  such  prolonged  brain  life  would  lie  in  giving  the 
brain  cells  a  pure,  normal  food,  through  an  uninjured  blood  circu- 
latory, and  preserving  them  from  the  ills  that  come  from  asso- 
ciation with  other  impaired  cell  groups  of  the  organism. 

The  brain  appears  to  be  a  colony  of  cells  destined  to  live  long 
and  capable  of  doing  so,  but  for  the  weakness,  diseases,  and 
frailties  of  the  organism  in  which  it  has  developed.  On  the  one 
hand,  it  is  the  organism  by  means  of  which  it  has  come  forward 
and  arisen  to  its  present  high  estate  of  intellectual  puissance;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  this  same  organism  which  now  drags  it 
down  to  death. 


THE  VEGETABLE   THEORY   OF   OLD   AGE 

The  "  Cometh  up  like  a  flower  "  theory  of  old  age  has  long  been 
a  popular  one. 

When  we  regard  the  growth,  blooming,  and  death  of  a  sum- 
mer flower,  the  shooting  upward  of  the  flower  stalk  of  a  poppy, 
for  example,  with  its  blossom,  its  seeding,  and  its  suddenly  en- 
suing juicelessness  and  dead  rigidity,  we  contemplate  phenomena 
not  wholly  unlike  what  takes  place  in  the  human  organism,  when 
regarded  in  the  large,  passing  from  infancy  to  maturity  and  old 
age. 

What  has  taken  place  in  the  poppy  stalk? 

One  class  of  plant  cells  has  developed,  multiplied,  and  from  the 
products  which  have  issued  from  them,  has  produced  the  stalk 
proper  and  leaves.  Immediately  another  class  has,  in  like  man- 
ner, given  rise  first  to  the  bud,  then  to  the  gorgeous  blossom  with 
its  stamens  and  pistils.  Fertilization  follows  in  its  timed  order; 
and  later  another  class  of  cells  matures  as  seed. 

It  has  been  held  that  these  latter  cells  in  some  manner  sap  and 
eviscerate,  so  to  speak,  the  cells  of  every  other  tissue  of  the  plant, 
and  thus  sapping  them  of  their  life  elements,  or  germs,  condense 
these  latter  in  the  seed,   where  it  mav  loner  lie  dormant,   vet   is 


1 62  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

capable  of  producing  another  plant;  and  that  the  parent  plant, 
thus  sapped  and  eviscerated,  dies  naturally,  its  life  being  virtually 
taken  away  and  carried  forward  to  the  seed  for  another  year. 

The  observed  fact  that  the  stalk  and  lower  leaves  of  the  poppy 
remain  green  until  late  in  the  season,  if  the  flower  stalk  is  nipped, 
has  been  regarded  as  evidence  of  this  view,  namely,  that  the 
phenomena  of  its  grow^th,  maturity  and  dry  death  stand  for  a 
development,  successively,  of  one  class  of  cells  after  another,  from 
the  seed  around  to  the  seed  again;  that  the  plant  dies  when  the 
germs  of  life  have  left  the  stalk  and  leaf  and  passed  upward  to 
their  final  lodgment  in  the  seed. 

It  is  an  easy  theory,  easily  derived,  easily  argued,  and  falls  in 
superficially  well  with  certain  aspects  of  the  cell  doctrine.  But  it 
carries  a  great  and  vicious  untruth ;  vicious  in  that  it  would  in- 
dicate that  the  primary  and  ultimate  object  of  all  plant  life  is  to 
bear  seed;  of  all  animal  life,  to  bring  forth  offspring. 

Per  contra,  we  believe  that  the  object  of  all  life,  vegetable  and 
animal,  is  to  live  and  feel  the  joys  of  living;  and  that  seed  and 
offspring  are  produced  because,  under  the  hard  conditions  of  the 
earthly  habitat,  we  are  unable  to  live  on  continuously.  That  is 
to  say,  if  the  earth  had  always  been  an  easy  habitat  for  life,  tlicre 
would  have  been  no  seed,  no  offspring,  no  death.  Offspring  and 
seed  result  originally  from  hardships  and  prospective  death  to  the 
parent  cell,  and  are  not  the  object  of  living,  but  rather  an  evasion 
of  death. 

It  seems  very  desirable  to  have  these  premises  right  at  the 
outset  as  contrasted  with  the  contrary  view,  and  to  set  off  free 
from  a  radically  wrong  theory  of  life. 

To  return  now  to  our  observation  of  the  poppy  stalk,  whatever 
of  fate,  of  final  tendency  to  go  to  seed,  there  is  in  it,  will  be  found 
due  to  heredity,  established  by  long  conformity  to  climate  and 
other  conditions;  a  habit  of  Hving  which  leads  the  different  classes 
of  cells  to  develop  and  produce  tissue  at  a  certain  time,  relatively 
to  each  other;  and  in  the  manner  in  which  these  different  tissue 
growths  of  the  stalk  and  flower  limit  and  restrict  each  other. 

Why  does  the  poppy  live?  It  lives  to  express  its  life,  its  per- 
sonal life,  and  to  take  its  personal  satisfaction  from  living.  It 
is  an  organized  effort  at  fruition.  Seed  is  its  mode  of  escaping 
death. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 63 

But  granting  the  general  truth  of  the  doctrine  that  seed  and 
death  result  primarily  from  the  hard  conditions  of  terrestrial  life, 
which  make  it  impossible  for  metazoons  to  live  on  continuously 
and  deathlessly,  it  has  been  argued  that  all  existent  forms  of  life 
have  fallen  irretrievably  into  this  mode  of  living  and  dying.  Not 
only  do  the  same  conditions  of  hardship  and  limitation  still  prevail 
which  first  induced  seed  and  death,  but  every  plant  and  animal 
lives  by  virtue  of,  and  in  accord  with,  a  plan  or  an  arrangement 
of  the  germinal  matter  in  the  seed,  which  compels  it  to  unfold  as 
did  the  parent,  and  inevitably  produce  seed  and  die. 

That  is  to  say,  the  arrangement  of  the  protoplasmic  molecules 
in  the  germ,  seed,  or  ovum,  is  such  that  the  successive  growths 
of  tissue  must,  if  the  plant  or  animal  is  to  live  at  all,  succeed  each 
other  according  to  the  order  of  their  arrangement  or  garnering 
in  the  germ. 

In  the  main,  this  view  must  be  conceded  to  be  upheld  by  the 
facts.  Heredity  does  thus  hold  all  forms  of  life  within  its  iron 
clutch.  Plants  and  the  lower  orders  of  animal  life  tend  not  to 
change,  and  for  the  most  part  would  perish  if  suddenly  altered 
conditions  compelled  great  changes ;  and  it  is  but  to  a  single 
tissue,  even  in  the  human  organism  —  the  cerebral  tissue  —  that 
we  can  look  with  any  confidence  for  a  successful  contest  with  the 
restrictive  dominion  of  heredity.  That  one  tissue  is  still  progress- 
ive and  capable  of  self-direction  r.ud  self-elevation,  capable,  too, 
of  revolutionizing  the  organism. 


THE  HYPNOTIC  THEORY  OF  OLD  AGE 

There  is  also  what  may  be  termed  the  hypnotic  hypothesis  of 
old  age,  the  idea  that  old  age  ensues  from  a  fixed  belief,  or  mental 
expectation,  that  it  will  occur  at  a  certain  age.  That  from  earliest 
ages  this  expectation  has  taken  the  form  of  creed  or  an  instinct 
and  acts,  after  middle  life,  as  a  species  of  inveterate  hypnosis, 
compelling  the  person  to  behave  after  a  senescent  fashion,  and 
feel  the  sensations  and  even  experience  the  pains  of  senility. 

In  a  word,  that  we  grow  "  old  "  because  we  believe  that  we 
shall  grow  old.  It  is,  therefore,  an  attitude  of  mind  that  causes 
old  age;  and  the  inference  is,  that  if  a  fixed  belief  that  man  is 


164  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

deathless  and  will  never  grow  old,  could  be  substituted  for  this, 
his  present  belief,  greatly  prolonged  life  would   follow. 

In  support  of  this  theory,  the  well-known  physiological  effects 
of  innervation  are  cited.  Muscle  cells  severed  from  their  connec- 
tion with  nerve  and  brain  soon  atrophy  and  die.  The  same  is 
true  of  other  tissues.  Stimulation  from  the  brain  and  spinal  cord 
is  necessary  to  the  life  and  function  of  all  the  associate  tracts  of 
cells.  These  live  only  from  their  connection  with  the  brain  and 
are  dependent  on  it  for  motif  to  live  and  work.  It  is  this  pre- 
eminent brain  colony  of  cells  which  not  only  controls  and  domi- 
nates, but  continuously  furnishes  the  stimulus  —  the  tide  of 
corpuscles  —  that  impels  the  servile  tracts  of  cells  to  activity  in 
their  appointed  ways.  Severed  from  the  brain,  they  turn  idle, 
run  riot,  or  lapse  into  desuetude. 

^Moreover,  there  is  the  vast  array  of  observed  phenomena  where 
fixed  beliefs  and  the  mental  state,  known  as  expectation,  are  seen 
to  have  profoundly  aft'ected  the  operations  of  the  human  body, 
even  to  producing  the  semblance  of  virulent  diseases  and  death 
itself ;  of  scar,  stigmata,  and  all  the  strange  phenomena  that  ensue 
from  religious  exaltation.  In  fact,  the  evidence  is  complete  as  to 
the  brain's  occasional  dominancy  over  the  organism. 

Of  the  hypnotic  theory,  however,  it  must  be  observed  that  it 
fails  to  account  for  the  old-aging  of  animals,  insects,  and  plant 
life  —  unless  they,  too,  are  hypnotized! 


OLD   AGE   FROM    HARDENED   ARTERIES 

A  celebrated  physician  was  accustomed  to  say.  that  "  a  man 
is  as  old  as  his  arteries;"  and  from  this  dictum,  which  has  its 
grain  of  truth,  has  come  what  may  be  termed  the  blood-circu- 
latory theory  of  old  age.  Succinctly,  that  excluding  what  may 
be  classed  as  accidental  deaths  from  bursting  arteries  or  veins  and 
from  arterio-capillary  sclerosis,  there  is  in  aging  organisms  a 
slow  chemico-mechanical  contraction  and  diminution  of  the  caliber 
of  the  capillaries,  which  results  in  starvation  of  the  tissue  cells, 
from  exclusion  of  the  blood  corpuscles  and  even  of  the  blood 
plasma.  Oxygen  and  nutrient  particles  are  from  this  cause  slowly 
excluded  from  the  cell  which  starves  like  a  captive  shut  up  in  a 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  165 

dungeon.  The  progressive  shrinkage  and  diminution  of  the 
capillary  tubes  has  been  ascribed  to  chemical  changes  in  the 
"  formed  matter "  of  which  they  are  composed.  In  foetal  life 
capillaries  grow  forward  from  a  terminal  cell-bud  and  are  hol- 
lowed into  channels  behind  the  cell  as  it  advances.  It  has  been 
argued  that,  after  a  certain  lapse  of  time,  this  fonned  tube  deteri- 
orates from  chemical  instability,  irrespective  of  the  personal  life 
and  without  reference  to  it 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  CELL  OLD  AGE 

In  the  winter  of  1892,  while  conducting  a  microscopical  ex- 
amination of  the  brain  neurons  in  dogs,  the  writer  was  led  to 
obsen^e  the  differences  between  the  cells  of  young  and  old  canine 
brains.  These  observations  were  afterwards  extended  to  other 
canine  tissues.  Later  still,  the  same  results  were  verified  in  the 
genus  sus,  and  finally  in  human  tissues;  the  result  of  the  entire 
series  of  observ^ations  being  to  establish  conclusively  that  the  cell- 
of-life  in  animal  organisms  has  its  period  of  adolescence,  maturity 
and  "  old  age ;  "  that  old  age  as  we  know  it  in  man  comes  from  an 
antecedent  old  age  of  the  cells.  These  little  founts  and  seats  of 
life,  themselves,  become  smaller  and  senescent.  Our  human  old 
age  is  a  resultant  condition,  reflected  outward,  from  this  old-aging 
of  the  tissue  cells. 

The  work  referred  to  was  done  in  part  at  New  York  City,  and 
the  "  material  "  examined  was  the  brain  and  spinal  cord  of  dogs 
(twenty-six  dogs)  large  and  small,  old  and  young,  from  the  dog 
pound  of  that  metropolis.  In  these  canine  subjects  the  cells  of 
old  individuals  were  found  to  differ  visibly  from  the  younger,  in 
that  they  were  less  delicate,  the  filaments  less  extensive  and,  as 
a  rule,  the  whole  cell  smaller ;  that  is  to  say,  the  living  portions 
of  the  cell  which  could  be  stained,  were  less  in  quantity  in  the  old 
than  in  the  young.  Not  only  were  the  nuclei  smaller,  but  the 
cytoplasm  was  equally  diminished.  It  was  apparent  that  these 
old  brain  and  cord  cells  had  deteriorated  and  were  declining  bv  a 
process  of  involution.  Yet  here  and  there  on  the  slides  appeared 
a  well-nourished  cell  which  looked  to  be  holding  its  own  with 
those  of  the  "  control." 


l66  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Observation  of  these  variations  was  carried  through  five  pairs 
of  old  and  young  dogs  —  each  pair  with  a  "  control  "  —  of  about 
the  same  breed  and  of  the  same  size  as  nearly  as  could  be  obtained, 
although  the  latter  particular  is  of  no  especial  importance;  a  small 
dog  may  have  as  large  cells  as  a  large  dog. 

In  passing,  it  may  be  noted  here  that  nearly  all  these  old  New 
York  dogs  had  lesions  of  the  spinal  cord,  most  frequently  in  the 
posterior  columns  and  the  column  of  Tiirck. 

Later,  the  brain  cells  of  pigs  were  compared  in  like  manner  with 
those  of  old  hogs,  with  the  same  general  result;  though  it  should 
be  remarked  that  in  the  genus  sus  not  a  single  lesion  of  the  cord 
happened  to  be  encountered ;  but  this  may  have  been  largely  due 
to  chance. 

Next  year,  as  far  as  possible  (not  an  easy  matter  without  sus- 
picion of  a  pathological  vitiation  of  the  results)  the  same  com- 
parative studies  were  paralleled  in  human  subjects,  with  substan- 
tially the  same  revelations  as  to  the  progressive  change  in  the 
aspects  and  appearances  of  the  cells  from  youth  to  advanced  age. 

Still  later,  the  cells  of  other  tissues  of  the  human  organism  — 
cuticle,  bone,  muscle,  liver,  heart  —  were  in  like  manner  contrasted, 
under  high  microscopic  power,  the  general  result  of  all  these  ob- 
servations being  to  establish  the  fact  that  the  cells  of  the  mam- 
malian tissues,  man  as  well  as  the  lower  animals,  shrink  in  size  and 
change  their  appearance  as  the  subject  ages,  tending  to  fall  into 
a  condition  which  cannot  be  better  nor  otherwise  described  than 
as  "cell  old  age."  The  cells  themselves  become  senescent;  and 
it  is  cell  old  age  which  underlies  organic  or  bodily  old  age  in 
animals  and  man.  In  other  words  it  is  the  old-aging  of  the  cell 
which  has  so  long  been  that  mysterious  cause  or  agency  which 
induces  and  is  associated  with  constitutional  and  functional  old 
age  in  man.  There  are  intimate  or  primary  causes  of  cell  old  age, 
incident  and  peculiar  to  the  inner,  personal  life  of  the  cell  itself, 
and  proximate  or  secondary  causes  due  to  the  metazoic  or  asso- 
ciated life  of  many  cells,  living  in  a  co-operative  union. 

The  causes  of  cell  old  age  are  manifold;  the  pre-determining 
bias  from  ancestry;  faulty  nutrition  of  the  cell  from  impurities  in 
food,  that  is  to  say  the  general  impurities  of  food ;  decline  of  the 
body  heat,  in  advancing  years;  starvation  of  the  cell  from  the 
shrinkage  of  the  capillaries,  causing  restricted  circulation  of  the 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  167 

blood  plasma;  diminution  of  nervous  energy  from  the  brain  and 
cord  to  the  tissues;  i.  e.  slackening  of  the  subconscious  life;  slow 
poisoning  of  the  cell  from  unremoved  waste  products  of  the  whole 
body;  microscopic  "  dirt;  "  what  may  be  described  as  the  gradual 
"  binding  out  "  of  the  cell  from  the  chemical  hardening  of  its 
environment  of  formed  matter;  the  (possible)  drain  of  germinal 


(2.    ^.       S'oyn.iJSjXA.     CtXCS       (l^~y^     EiTrcL      CtI     CLvb    0-t<i. 

cUo^  ^  0 

elements  to  the  reproductive  cells;  slow,  chronic  suffocation  from 
lessened  oxygenation,  due  to  the  fouling  and  thickening  of  the 
alveolar  membranes  in  the  lungs. 

Sketch  8  will  give  some  idea  of  the  changed  appearance  of  mul- 
tipolar cells  from  the  anterior  horn  of  the  spinal  cord  of  dogs, 
in  old  age  as  compared  with  adolescence,  viz.  eighteen  months  as 
against  fourteen  years.  The  cells  appear  smaller;  the  nuclei  are 
noticeably  smaller;  and  the  arborizations  now  for  the  most  part 


1 68  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

fail  to  be  revealed  by  the  stains.  Old  tissues  are,  it  should  be  re- 
membered, less  easily  stained  than  adolescent  tissues.  In  the  cases 
cited,  the  fibrils  had  either  largely  disappeared  or  become  so  atten- 
uated that  the  stains  failed  to  render  them  visible  on  the  slides. 
The  cell  bodies,  too,  are  less  distinctly  stained  and  have  assumed 
a  perceptibly  shrunken  appearance,  not  unlike  the  cells  of  animals 
suffering  from  extreme  fatigue,  or  when  long  famished. 

In  the  pituitary  body  or  gland  —  exceedingly  interesting  on 
account  of  its  influence,  when  stimulated,  or  diseased,  on  the 
growth  of  the  entire  organism  —  the  contrast  between  adolescent 
and  aged  cells  was  most  remarkable.  The  cells  examined  were 
from  the  posterior  lobe,  the  anterior  containing  none  of  this  class. 
As  stained  by  the  nitrate  silver  process,  these  cells  appear  to  be 
dendrites  or  pyramidal  cells,  somewhat  resembling  the  cerebral 
pyramidals,  but  less  regular  and  typical.  Each  has  one,  sometimes 
two  neuraxones,  or  axis-cylinder  processes,  which  however,  are 
not  as  easily  traceable  as  in  the  cerebrum. 

The  pituitaries  from  but  two  dogs  were  examined,  one  appar- 
ently about  eighteen  months  old,  the  other  very  old,  certainly  not 
less  than  eleven  or  twelve  years,  probably  more. 

Sketch  9  gives  the  generalized  result  of  what  the  microscope 
revealed.  In  the  young  animal  the  cells,  cell  branches  and  arbori- 
zations are  displayed  clearly  even  in  feathery  detail.  In  the  old 
animal  the  presence  of  the  cells  is  shown  for  the  most  part  as  a 
mere  irregular  patch  of  black  stain,  much  as  if  the  branched  proc- 
esses were  dead  and  only  an  encysted  cytoplasm  and  nucleus  re- 
mained of  the  cell.  Even  this  cell  body  was  smaller  and  less 
distincdy  stained,  as  if  shrunken  or  impregnated  by  non-living 
matter. 

Curiously  enough,  however,  on  one  slide,  out  of  seven  or  eight 
of  this  old  tissue,  there  appeared  a  single  cell  in  good  condition, 
as  large  or  larger  than  any  of  those  on  the  slides  of  young  tissue, 
having  all  the  characteristic  arborization,  with  the  neuraxone 
traceable  to  a  considerable  distance. 

Apparently  this  was  a  cell  that  had  continued  to  be  well  nour- 
ished while  its  fellows  had  starved  —  how,  or  why,  it  would  be 
interesting  to  know.  Perhaps  because  located  contiguous  to  a 
capillary  channel  which  had  remained  fully  open  and  pervious  to 
the  blood-stream.     Similar  rare  isolated  instances  of  well-preserved 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED 


169 


cells  were  observed  among  the  cerebral  dendrites,  and  also  among 
hepatic  cells :  rare  individuals,  surviving  in  health  and  strength, 
in  the  midst  of  a  shrunken,  dying  generation  of  their  fellows. 
This  is  a  point  of  far  greater  interest  than  was  at  first  appreciated. 
Briefly  it  is  one  of  the  best  evidences  of  the  main  contention  of 


f 


k 


B 


6   6  8    O'n^^^ii*^  cfe££.3    fe*^  CL  vv«^  cKX  cT^. 

this  volume,  namely,  that  the  cell-of-life  under  favoring  conditions 
of  nutrition  and  stimulation,  is  a  potentially  deathless  unit;  that 
the  cells  of  the  animal  organism  decline,  in  senescence,  owing  to 
unfavorable  conditions  of  their  environment;  i.e.  lack  of  nutri- 
tion, contamination  and  overdraught  on  their  powers,  to  support 
the  wants  of  the  organism  as  a  whole. 


I/O  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

Allowing  for  all  errata  of  the  staining  processes,  either  the 
nitrate  silver  method  or  the  dyes,  the  facts  in  regard  to  cell  old 
age  appear  to  be  about  as  I  have  endeavored  to  sketch  them. 


THE  CAPILLARIES  IN  OLD  TISSUES 

Many  practical  difficulties  attend  the  preparation  of  the  capil- 
laries for  examination,  chief  est  of  which  is  an  injection  fluid  that 
will  penetrate  them.  The  fluid,  moreover,  has  to  be  forced  into 
the  artery  at  a  considerable  pressure,  and  in  aged  subjects,  and 
often  in  adolescents,  the  vessels  give  way  before  the  capillaries  can 
be  filled.  Gases,  too,  sometimes  act  to  make  "  pockets,"  especially 
in  old  subjects,  where  many  of  the  capillaries  are  plugged,  or 
desuete. 

So  many,  indeed,  are  these  practical  difficulties,  and  so  greatly 
do  subjects  vary,  that  it  would  be  unsafe  to  draw  deductions  or 
form  an  opinion  as  to  the  difference  between  old  and  young  capil- 
laries, from  a  single  comparison.  A  considerable  number  of  com- 
parisons should  be  made,  and  all  the  conditions  carefully  estimated, 
as,  for  example,  the  greater  elasticity  of  the  young  capillary. 

The  accompanying  pen  sketch  was  made  after  a  week's  work  in 
such  comparisons.  It  stands  for  a  general  result  rather  than  for 
any  one  instance. 

Of  old  capillaries,  compared  with  young,  it  may  be  said,  first, 
that  they  are  shorter  as  a  natural  result  of  tissues  thinning  in  aged 
subjects.  This  is  especially  noticeable  in  the  epidermis  and  cutis; 
yet  in  forming  an  opinion  it  is  necessary  to  do  so  guardedly,  on 
account  of  the  greater  pressure  required  to  inject  the  old  tissue. 

There  are  pouches  in  old  capillaries,  and  often  they  appear  to 
end  abruptly  in  cul-de-sacs,  although  here  again  it  is  well  to  bear 
in  mind  that  this  latter  appearance  may  be  due  to  failure  of  the 
injection  fluid  to  penetrate  further.  Allowance  for  this,  indeed, 
must  be  made  constantly  in  all  cases,  old  or  young. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever,  that  as  a  rule,  applying  to  at 
least  ninety  per  cent,  of  two  capillary  systems,  adolescent  as  com- 
pared with  aged,  the  calibers  of  the  old  capillaries  will  be 
found  of  notably  less  diameter.  For  instance,  where  young  capil- 
laries have  an  average  caliber  of    1-2500  of  an  inch,   the  corre- 


HOW    IT    WILL   BE   ACHIEVED 


171 


7  ^j\XsXi»^  fe^< 


2.. 


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C*^iv-v**~0  \ 


tsift./^. 


spending  old  capillaries  will  be  as  small  as  1-3200:  and  in  the  brain, 
or  cord,  where  the  young  are  1-4000,  the  old  might  be  less  than 
1-4600.    It  will  be  understood,  of  course,  that  I  am  not  here  speak- 


172  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

ing  of  dilated  capillaries,  or  of  pathologic  cases,  but  of  what  may 
be  termed  the  normal  aged  condition ;  nor  yet  of  the  sometimes 
pouched,  sometimes  stenotic  condition  of  a  capillary. 

In  old  capillaries  scarcely  a  nucleus  of  the  formative  epithelial 
cell  can  be  distinguished  in  the  walls  of  the  tubule.  Per  contra, 
in  young  capillaries,  where  a  successful  attempt  is  made  to  stain 
them  with  silver  nitrate,  the  nuclei  are  numerous. 

Old  capillaries  as  a  rule  evince  the  tendency  above  noted,  to 
show  "  pouches,''  "  pockets  "  and  plugged  loops.  In  the  old,  too, 
considerable  tracts  are  not  un frequently  found  obliterated,  the 
loops  apparently  plugged  with  unremoved  waste,  or  stenosed  be- 
)^ond  the  point  where  the  blood-stream  can  penetrate  them. 

The  arterial  capillaries  are,  of  course,  the  channels  through 
which  the  blood  reaches  the  tissue  cells  and  passes  over  into  the 
corresponding  channels  on  the  venous  side  of  the  circulation,  to  be 
pumped  back  by  the  heart  to  the  lungs  for  re-oxygenation.  Not 
only  the  blood  plasma  is  oxygenated,  but  separate  charges  of  ox}^- 
gen  are  taken  up  by  the  red  blood  disks  and  borne  by  them  to 
every  part  of  the  organism,  to  maintain  the  body  heat  at  98°  Fah, 

It  is  not  difficult,  therefore,  to  perceive  what  happens  when  the 
arterial  capillaries  become  so  narrowed,  stiffened,  plugged  and 
generally  impaired  that  the  plasma  fails  to  reach  the  cells,  and 
the  blood  disks  cannot  readily  pass  over  to  the  venous  side,  but 
stick  by  the  way,  or  become  pocketed. 

This  is  manifestly  one  reason  why  lean,  elderly  persons,  with 
shrunken  tissues,  suffer  so  constantly  from  cold  feet,  cold  hands 
and  from  low  temperatures  generally.  This  is  one  of  the  large 
factors  of  old  age.  Incidentally,  greater  stress  is  put  on  the  heart 
muscle  to  force  the  blood  through  to  the  veins.  The  accumulation 
of  venous  blood  which  we  often  see  in  the  veins,  however,  is  quite 
another  matter,  due  to  abnormalities  of  the  valves  in  the  veins  and 
to  enfeebled  heart  action. 

Micro-photography  is  of  less  avail  here  than  in  almost  any  other 
situation.  Allowing  for  the  greater  difficulty  of  injecting  old  tis- 
sue, there  yet  appears  in  the  latter,  as  compared  with  young,  a 
condition  somewhat  as  sketched  above. 

Rarely,  or  never,  do  we  succeed  in  so  perfectly  injecting  the 
capillaries,  that  the  finer,  ultimate  channels,  loops  and  meshwork  — 
where  the  arterial  capillaries  pass  over  and  are  differentiated  as 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 73 

the  venous  capillaries — can  be  examined;  the  latter,  indeed,  in 
most  instances,  remain  filled,  or  partially  filled,  with  blood  at  the 
death  of  the  subject  examined. 

The  first  capillaries,  from  the  arteriole,  in  young  tissue  are 
longer  and  of  greater  caliber  as  a  rule.  Evidently  their  elasticity 
and  dHatability  are  greater.  The  strong  heart  of  youth  sends  the 
blood  disks,  charged  with  oxygen,  through  them  rapidly,  without 
obstruction,  or  squeezing,  generating  that  heat  so  necessary  to 
health  and  vital  well-being. 

In  age  the  reverse  condition  prevails,  with  lack  of  heat,  and 
sluggishness,  not  only  of  the  plasma-flow  to  the  cells,  but  of  the 
neuro-electronic  circulation  through  the  nerve  trunks  and  fibrils. 

I  have  attempted  to  show  the  pouched  appearance  in  this  size 
or  grade  of  capillaries,  where  apparently  the  red  disks  of  the  blood 
pause  too  long  in  their  obstructed  flow.  Some  of  these  pouches 
look  to  be  greater  than  I  have  drawn  them;  but  when  all  the  dif- 
ficulties attending  examination  are  borne  in  mind,  that  question 
is  a  delicate  one,  at  best. 

In  this  connection,  it  may  be  remarked  that  in  1896,  a  prize  of 
$400  was  offered  from  this  laboratory  for  the  best  exhibit  of 
microscopic  shdes,  comparing  aged  and  adolescent  capillaries  from 
human  or  canine  subjects,  with  a  view  to  increasing  our  knowl- 
edge on  this  subject  of  capillary  shrinkage  and  the  resulting  cell 
starvation. 

Tlie  offer  and  the  motive  for  it  were  made  as  plain  as  possible; 
but  very  little  came  of  it,  many  microscopists  professing  them- 
selves unable  to  comprehend  what  was  wanted. 


SENSATION  AND  CELL  OLD  AGE 

In  a  work,  entitled  Age,  Growth  and  Death,  the  late  Professor 
Charles  S.  Minot  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School  went  into  the 
matter  of  the  progressive  senescence  of  the  physiological  cell  far 
more  deeply  and  comprehensively  than  any  of  the  foreign  histolo- 
gists.  He  recognized  a  structural  change  in  the  protoplasm  and 
nucleus  of  the  tissue  cell,  from  youth  to  age.  Incidentally,  Pro- 
fessor Minot  held  that  the  protoplasm  of  the  cell  is  increased, 
while  the  nucleus  is  diminished  —  a  deduction  which  the  present 


174  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

writer's  observations  fail  to  confirm  as  regards  the  former.  With 
few  apparent  exceptions,  I  have  found  that  the  entire  cell  "  ages  " 
and  is  diminished  in  size,  "  protoplasm  "  and  nucleus  alike. 

As  to  an  intimate  structural  change  in  the  living  matter  of  the 
cell,  from  infancy  to  age,  that  is  of  course  beyond  our  present 
powers  of  observation  to  demonstrate,  although  it  appears  likely. 

Touching  the  causes  of  this  change,  Professor  Minot  was  silent, 
as  if  regarding  it  as  something  final  in  the  order  of  the  universe. 

But  certain  of  the  primary  and  the  proximate  causes  of  this 
progressive  structural  change  in  the  protoplasm  and  nucleus  of 
the  cell  from  youth  to  age,  have  already  been  suggested  above. 

To  these  causes,  already  enumerated,  must  be  added  another, 
from  the  psychic  side  of  the  cell  life,  to  wit,  sensation,  that  is  to 
say,  the  sensory  life  of  the  cell  from  moment  to  moment  and  day 
to  day.  Painful  sensation  undoubtedly  impairs  the  sentient  proto- 
plasmic structure,  impairs  or  deadens  it;  while  on  the  other  hand, 
pleasant  sensation  vivifies  it.  But  in  organic  life  as  we  now  Uve 
it,  painful  sensation  in  time  overbalances  pleasurable,  in  the  cell 
life,  leading  to  a  secular  deterioration  in  structure  —  the  structure 
requisite  to  maintain  life.  The  philosophic  and  practical  inference 
from  this  is  easy,  the  moral  plain. 

Granting  the  existence  of  a  structural  change  in  the  somatic  cell, 
evinced  from  foetal  life  onward  to  old  age  and  death,  we  are  of 
course  constrained  to  seek  the  causes.  Why  does  the  change 
occur?  To  leave  it  there,  in  the  hands  of  Fate,  does  not  help  us  to 
grow  in  knowledge.  At  present  the  primary  causes  seem  to  be 
errata  in  cell  nutrition,  bias  from  cell  ancestry  and  a  possible 
fructification  of  the  cell  in  a  species  of  corpuscular  germ  elements 
which  set  up  a  drain  of  depletion  on  it;  although  this  latter 
hypothesis  is  contrary  to  the  present  germ-plasm  doctrines. 

The  cell  in  its  self-conscious  life,  whatever  its  situation  — 
whether  a  protozoon  or  a  metazoic  tissue  cell  of  brain,  or  muscle 
—  is  subject  to  that  continuous  reaction  from  its  environment 
which  we  ordinarily  term  sensation.  This  reaction  is  iterated  from 
moment  to  moment,  hour  to  hour,  and  day  to  day,  during  the 
entire  cell  lifetime. 

Now  we  know  from  common  observation  that  the  repetition  of 
identical  or  similar  sensations  dulls,  that  is  to  say  lessens,  the  sen- 
sory capacity  of  brain  cells. 


HOW    IT    WILL   BE    ACHIEVED  I75 

Does  sensation  then  cause  that  structural  change  in  the  nucleus 
and  the  protoplasm  of  the  cell,  which  we  associate  with  senes- 
cence?     Data  are  lacking  for  answer  to  this  question. 

THE    INFERENCE    FROM    MAUPAS'    OBSERVATIONS 

More  than  half  a  century  ago,  in  France,  E.  Maupas,  and  after- 
wards Balbiani,  demonstrated  that  a  colony  of  unicells,  living  on 
by  fission,  from  parent  to  child,  became  senescent,  enfeebled  and 
tended  to  extinction,  unless  sexual  conjugation  took  place  at  in- 
tervals of  forty  or  fifty  generations.  Rejuvenescence  was  thereby 
effected;  otherwise  the  colony  died  out.  Later,  in  this  country 
Professor  G.  N.  Calkins  has,  as  I  understand,  verified  Maupas' 
conclusions  from  actual  observations.  My  own  work  in  mam- 
malian tissues,  old  and  young,  as  mentioned  above,  tends  to  estab- 
lish the  same  general  fact  for  the  metazoic  cell,  since  the  various 
organized  groups  of  tissue  cells  in  metazoons  are  analogous  to  the 
cell  colonies  of  unicellular  life.  The  fact,  too,  that  metazoons 
can  only  be  renewed,  that  is  to  say  rejuvenated,  by  the  sexual 
method,  goes  still  farther  to  show  that  the  same  law  of  life  pre- 
vails alike  in  the  unicell  colony  and  the  orders  of  tissue  cells. 

During  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  research 
was  younger,  many  of  us  fondly  believed  that  we  held  the  key  to 
the  vital  situation  in  a  discovery  —  then  believed  authentic  —  that 
unicellular  life  was  naturally  immortal;  that  certain  infusoria, 
bacteria,  protozoa,  meaning  the  first  simple  forms  of  life,  lived 
and  multiplied  by  fission  and  division,  without  dying;  that  there 
was  really  no  such  calamity  as  death  in  this  primary  form  of 
terrestrial  Hfe. 

This,  if  true,  was  perceived  to  be  of  tremendous  significance. 
It  opened  vistas  of  great  hopes.  For  it  was  already  recognized 
that  unicellular  life  was  the  basis  of  multicellular  organisms.  If, 
therefore,  these  structural  units  of  our  bodies  were  deathless  under 
nature,  the  whole  question  of  immortal  life  for  man  resolved  itself 
into  one  of  proper  care  and  husbandry,  protection  and  nutrition,  of 
the  physiological  cell.  The  hope  was  logical,  the  deduction  legiti- 
mate, if  these  premises  concerning  the  natural  deathlessness  of  the 
unicells  were  true. 


176  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

Professor  August  Weissmann  —  whose  theories  of  Hfe  and 
death  are  now  common  property  throughout  the  world  —  made 
the  natural  immortality  of  unicellular  life  one  of  the  foundation 
stones  of  his  famous  hypothesis  of  the  germ-plasm ;  other  German 
histologists  concurred,  as  also  several  noted  English  biologists ; 
and  for  ten  years  we  really  seemed  to  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  great 
problem  of  life  on  the  earth.  It  was  then  more  logical  to  argue 
that  the  attacks  of  disease  bacteria,  acute  and  chronic,  might  be 
the  ultimate  cause  of  old-aging.  For  we  contemplated  the  human 
organism  —  the  soma  —  as  composed  of  cells,  not  essentially  un- 
like unicells,  and  if  these  component  cells  were  deathless  unless 
crushed  by  violence,  starved,  suffocated,  or  otherwise  killed,  the 
problem  of  prolonging  human  life  indefinitely  would  be  solved 
when  we  could  ward  off  cell  dangers  in  our  bodies.  With  the 
somatic  cell  potentially  immortal,  death  was  due  to  organic  errata. 
Our  lives  rested  on  a  fixed  and  sure  basis  of  immortality  which 
was  in  plain  view ;  the  neurons  of  the  brain  were  so  many  units  of 
eternal  life,  if  only  we  could  guard  and  protect  them. 

True,  Professor  Weissmann  took  the  ground  that  mankind 
continued  to  die,  periodically,  because  prolonged  human  life  was 
not  useful  to  the  human  species;  in  a  word,  that  the  individual 
existed  solely  for  the  good  of  the  species ;  that  we  die  after  we 
produce  offspring  because  there  is  no  longer  any  reason  for  us 
to  live;  and  that  this  must  be  accepted  as  the  law  of  human  life. 

It  required  but  a  normal  exercise  of  common  sense,  however, 
to  discern  a  palpable  fallacy  in  this  corollary  of  the  Weissmann 
theory.  Hence,  those  who  hoped  for  greatly  prolonged  life,  from 
the  growth  of  knowledge,  were  not  disheartened ;  for  they  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  the  highest  interests  of  the  species  will  be 
conserved  far  better  by  a  race  of  perfected  individual  organisms 
which  were  deathless,  than  by  constant  generations  of  mortals.  It 
was  perceived  that  the  only  possible  reason  for  thus  exalting  the 
species  and  sacrificing  the  individual  on  its  altars,  must  lie  in  the 
expectation  that  ultimately  there  would  be  developed  from  the 
species  a  race  of  more  perfect  individuals. 

The  germ-plasm  of  Weissmann  is  the  human  reproductive 
tissue,  a  cell  colony  which  lives  on,  deathless,  from  generation 
to  generation;  the  soma  alone  dies;  the  germ-plasm  has  survived 
from  the  time  unicellular  life  was  the  only  form  of  life  on  the 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1/7 

earth.  Rejecting  the  theory  of  Darwin  and  others,  that  gem- 
mules  from  every  cell  of  the  organic  tissues  are  garnered  in  the 
reproductive  tissue,  to  be  extruded  as  embryonic  cells,  Weissmann 
taught  that  the  reproductive  cells,  by  permutations  and  combi- 
nations of  the  germinal  substances,  are  equal  to  the  task  of  origi- 
nating new  generations  of  mankind,  unaided,  and  that  the  soiiia 
has  nothing  to  do  with  reproduction  save  the  servile  task  of 
bearing  the  germ-plasm  forward  in  the  world  and  supplying  it 
with  food. 

Here,  again,  common  sense  could  not  help  thinking  that  as 
between  these  rival  theories  of  reproduction,  the  truth  may  lie 
midway;  that  the  despised  soma,  while  not  transferring  organized 
"  gemmules  "  to  the  reproductive  cell  colony,  may  yet  by  virtue 
of  "  nervous  currents,"  which  pass  to  and  fro,  so  influence,  mould, 
and  indk'iduali::c  the  germ-plasm  as  practically  to  impress  the 
ancestor  on  the  offspring",  and  virtually  reproduce  the  parent  in 
the  child.  This  view,  at  least,  had  the  merit  of  reconciling  opposed 
theories ;  and  —  saving  clause  —  it  is  not  clearly  known  as  yet 
in  what  nervous  currents  which  reciprocate  between  the  repro- 
ductive organs  and  the  rest  of  the  body,  consist,  or  how  fully 
representative  of  every  organ  and  tissue  of  the  body  they  may  be. 
A  nervous  current  is  a  great  mystery  and  involves  many  unknown 
quantities  and  qualities  of  matter;  it  is  a  fruitful  field  for  in- 
vestigation. When  we  are  able  to  analyze  a  neiwous  current,  we 
will  know  a  great  deal  more  about  human  life  than  at  present. 
It  would  not  surprise  the  writer,  if  a  nen'ous  current  were  found 
to  be  capable  of  transferring  the  image  and  character  of  one  cell 
to  another.  It  may  prove  a  stream  of  an  almost  infinitely  more 
minute  form  or  type  of  "  gemmules  "  than  Darwin  dreamed  of, 
or  Weissmann  repudiated. 

Then  in  1885-86,  and  for  a  time,  this  sense  of  certitude,  this 
feeling  of  mastery  of  the  great  problem,  was  given  a  rude  shock, 
by  deductions  drawn  from  the  observations  of  IMaupas,  confirmed 
by  contemporary  biologists.  Primitive  unicellular  life  was  not 
deathless  in  any  sense,  after  all.  The  intimate  causes  of  old-aging 
were  found  to  be  deeper-seated.  The  unicell  was  seen  to  "  age  " 
and  die,  even  as  the  multicells.  The  \\'eissmann  hypothesis  asso- 
ciated death  with  sexual  reproduction  in  the  multicells,  and  por- 


I/O  IMMORTAL    hlfE 

trayed  the  causes  of  death  as  organic  and  extra-cellular.  We  now 
learned  that  the  causes  of  death  are  intra-cellular.  Colonies  of 
unicells  conjugate  to  be  regenerated  by  blending  and  exchange  of 
particles,  sexually,  not  differently  in  principle  from  the  sexual 
congress  of  animals.  Unicells  increase  in  number  by  division  of 
the  adult,  parturient  cell  into  two  smaller  "  daughter  cells,"  each 
of  which  grows  and  divides  into  two  others,  generation  on  genera- 
tion, for  a  limited  length  of  time,  but  not  indefinitely,  as  was  at 
one  time  believed  to  be  true  of  them. 

On  the  contrary,  after  a  certain  number  of  cell  generations, 
such  unicells  must  get  together  sexually.  The  millions  of  rhizo- 
pods  in  a  stagnant  pool,  for  example,  must  thus  conjugate  or 
they  will  cease  to  be  reproductive  and  the  species  will  die  of  old 
age. 

As  observed  by  Maupas  in  1885-86,  and  other  observers  since, 
sexual  conjugation  is  accompanied  by  profound  changes  in  the 
cells.  The  technique  of  these  changes  is  of  less  consequence  here 
than  an  appreciation  of  the  principle  involved.  When  two  of  the 
conjugating  cells  have  paired  and  come  into  close  contact,  the 
paranucleus,  or  sex  organ,  of  each  suffers  a  species  of  dissolution; 
it  divides  and  appears  to  undergo  a  kind  of  reorganization; 
certain  parts  of  it  are  rejected  altogether  and  cast  forth,  as  if  worn 
out,  worthless,  or  deleterious.  The  remaining  parts  of  the  para- 
nuclei then  come  together  and  are  differentiated  as  a  male  and  a 
female  pronucleus.  All  this  seems  to  take  place  as  if  under  stim- 
ulus of  contact,  or  of  sexual  desire  between  the  two  cells.  Having 
paired,  these  changes  in  each  begin  and  proceed  as  above  indicated. 
Immediately  then  the  male  pronuclei  cross  over  from  cell  to  cell, 
the  female  pronuclei  remaining  stationary.  After  passing  over, 
the  male  pronuclei  unite  and  fuse,  each  with  the  resident  female 
pronucleus.  A  transfer  and  exchange  of  germinal  matter  from 
one  cell  to  another  is  thus  accomplished. 

Following  this  exchange,  a  complete  reconstruction  and  re- 
organization of  the  entire  nucleus  of  both  cells  take  place.  And 
now  the  two  unicells,  having  effected  this  swap-over  of  germinal 
matter,  and  this  profound  reconstruction,  slowly  separate  to  go 
each  its  individual  way  as  before.  Each  feeds  and  grows  and  in 
due   time  begins   to  multiply  by  fission   and   division   in  halves. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 79 

which  form  new  individuals;  and  this  asexual  increase  may  go  on 
for  fifty,  a  hundred,  or  even  six  hundred  generations. 

Maupas'  observations  also  indicated  that  sexual  conjugation  did 
not  take  place  successfully  between  unicells  of  the  same  family, 
that  is,  between  descendants  of  the  same  parent  cell.  The  dis- 
advantages and  observed  enfeeblement,  which  result  from  inbreed- 
ing in  animals,  and  in  consanguineous  marriages,  appear  therefore 
to  be  deep-seated  in  unicellular  life.  Sexual  conjugation  gave 
best  results  when  the  cells  were  of  "  stranger  "  parentage.  If 
sexual  conjugation  were  too  long  deferred,  till  the  successive  gen- 
erations had  grown  very  much  enfeebled  and  senescent,  it  was 
either  unsuccessful  or  failed  to  be  undertaken.  Under  natural 
conditions  it  took  place  when  the  individual  generations  were  at 
their  best. 

Why  individual  generations  from  the  same  parent  fail  to  con- 
jugate with  entire  success,  is  thus  far  as  little  understood  in  uni- 
cells as  in  animals.  The  proper  elements  for  the  sexual  reaction 
appear  to  be  lacking,  as  if  there  were  too  great  a  sameness,  too 
much  identity  or  similarity  in  the  sexual  elements  of  the  para- 
nucleus and  pronucleus.  To  obtain  the  needful  sexual  reaction 
or  stimulus  between  the  cells,  they  should  come  from  another 
stock  and  have  been  nourished  in  another  place,  in  a  different 
environment. 

Where  sexual  conjugation  did  not  take  place  the  generations 
from  the  same  cell  parent,  as  time  went  on,  became  smaller  and 
often  deformed.  After  several  hundred  generations  the  descend- 
ants of  a  single  cell  parent  all  die  and  the  line  becomes  extinct. 

As  touching  the  entire  validity  of  these  observations,  however, 
it  should  here  be  mentioned,  that  studies  of  the  proliferation  of 
certain  tissue  cells,  during  191 3-14,  go  to  show  that  under 
ideally  favorable  conditions  of  nutrition,  these  cells  may  multiply 
indefinitely,  without  visible  deterioration. 

Yet  in  the  human  organism  as  a  whole  there  is  the  observed  old- 
aging  of  the  tissue  cell. 

Wliat  can  this  mean  other  than  that  the  delicate  sentient  struc- 
ture of  the  cell  —  nucleus  and  protoplasm  —  is  somehow  fouled 
and  deteriorated  by  its  life,  by  the  way  it  is  nourished,  by  its  hard, 
painful  sensory  experience? 

The  unicell  eats  what  it  can  lay  hold  of,  and  can  frequently  be 


l80  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

seen  to  have  a  hard  and  demoralizing  struggle  with  what  it 
ingests. 

In  this  respect  the  lot  of  the  tissue  cell  of  the  animal  body  is 
easier;  and  for  this  reason  it  lives  far  longer.  Its  food  is  the 
highly-wrought  plasma  of  the  blood-stream ;  a  serum  which  cer- 
tain groups  of  cells  devote  their  lives  to  rectifying  and  purifying 
for  easy,  safe  assimilation. 

But  even  in  normal  mammalian  blood  is  this  cell  food  perfect, 
clean,  fit  and  chemically  pure?  By  no  means.  The  physiological 
cell  dies  from  it,  in  time.  Can  we  not  by  experiment  improve  this 
sanguineous  serum-of-life?  Can  we  not  still  further  rectify  and 
purify  this  ilumcn  vitcc,  this  plasma  of  the  blood-stream,  tih  a 
clean,  pure  and  chemically  perfect  cell  food  is  attained? 


SUBSEQUENT  CONCLUSIONS 

That  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a  time  of 
doubt  with  the  believers  in  natural  salvation.  For  awhile  we  were 
inclined  to  acquiesce  in  the  extreme  view  that  this  observed  de- 
cline and  aging  of  the  cell-of-life  was  due  to  an  inevitable,  irre- 
mediable exhaustion  of  the  vivific  molecules  of  the  cell  nucleus. 
That  even  if  the  number  of  protoplasmic  molecules  was  restored 
by  adjuvant  chemical  action,  we  might  yet  find  that  the  wear  and 
tear  of  cell  life  depletes  the  large  mobile  molecule,  itself ;  and  that 
the  problem  of  its  restoration  might  be  found  out  of  range  of  the 
chemical  activities  and  affinities  of  terrestrial  matter.  In  brief, 
that  death  reigned  irretrievably  on  our  planet,  and  that  life  is 
possible  here  only  in  the  parent-and-child  mode.  For  it  was  easy 
to  go  farther  and  theorize  that  molecules,  atoms,  and  even  cor- 
puscles are  depleted,  and  have  to  meet,  sexually,  for  renewal. 
There  have  been  various  fanciful  theories  as  to  sex  in  the  most 
minute  particles  of  which  matter  is  composed. 

The  deduction  then  made  was  that  the  hard  conditions  of  life 
on  the  earth  cause  the  cell  to  wane,  deteriorate,  or  "  run  down," 
to  the  extent  that  it  inevitably  dies  unless  reincarnated  by  sexual 
intcrblending  with  other  cells,  that  being  nature's  only  method 
of  getting  over  the  inherent  obstacles  to  terrestrial  life;  that  the 
unicells  have  found  life  too  hard  to  live  endlessly  as  individuals; 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  l8l 

that  under  the  ordinary  conditions  of  shore  and  pool,  they  die  out 
unless  renewed  by  sexual  regeneration;  —  and  this  is  the  death  of 
the  individual  life. 

For  it  is  race  life,  not  individual  life,  which  is  perpetuated  by 
sexual  renovation;  the  child  cell  may  be  like  the  parent,  but  is  not 
that  parent  personally.  Those  who  have  observed  the  profound 
changes,  the  commingling  and  re-grouping  of  the  cell  contents, 
that  precede  the  fission  and  division  of  a  unicell  into  two  "  daugh- 
ter cells  "  —  even  when  not  immediately  antedated  by  sexual  con- 
gress—  must  needs  conclude  that  the  parent  does  not  live  on  in 
one  of  these  cells,  but  comes  to  an  end,  personally  and  individually, 
at  fission.  So  that  the  declaration  of  Weissmann  and  other  biolo- 
gists of  that  time,  concerning  the  immortality  of  the  unicells,  was 
erroneous  from  the  start,  founded  on  faulty  observation;  the  fact 
being  that  a  unicell  always  dies,  personally,  when  it  gives  birth  to 
offspring  by  fission;  the  profound  break-up  and  reassembling  of 
the  nuclear  contents  being  equivalent  to  the  obliteration  of  the 
parent  cell  as  an  individual. 

But  in  accepting  this  conclusion,  touching  the  mortality  of  the 
unicells,  those  who  had  hoped  that  the  human  organism  might  be 
perfected  for  greatly  prolonged  life,  looking  toward  immortal  life, 
overlooked  for  a  time  a  most  important  fact,  and  failed  to  take 
cognizajice  of  what  nature  had  itself  been  doing  to  alleviate  these 
same  hard  terrestrial  conditions  which  cause  death  in  unicellular 
life.  We  failed  to  perceive  that  in  every  organism,  animal,  or 
plant,  a  united,  continuous  effort  is  made  to  render  cell  life  easier 
and  safer,  to  provide  a  better  cell  food  and  secure  more  perfect 
nutritioni,  to  eliminate  poisonous  substances,  and  remove  "  dirt," 

We  failed  at  first  to  comprehend  that  while  in  exposed,  unpro- 
tected unicellular  life  the  individual  could  not  live  for  more  than 
a  few  days  or  weeks  at  most,  and  was  obliged  soon  to  resort  to 
reproduction  to  escape  race  extinction,  cells  could  be  found  in 
multicelltilar  organizations,  the  brain  of  a  man  or  an  elephant, 
for  example,  that  live  for  a  century,  or  two  centuries.  In  short, 
that  multicellular  life  is  a  long-established,  co-operative  method 
on  the  part  of  cell  life,  to  live  longer  and  better,  looking  to  com- 
plete cell  salvation  under  nature. 

At  that  time  we  failed  to  comprehend  this  larger  effort  of  cell 
life.    Our  mental  concepts  did  not  then  as  now  embrace  the  larger 


l82  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

outlines  of  the  Earth's  life  scheme.  Nor  did  we  then  perceive  that 
these  grand  co-operative  unions  of  differentiated  and  specialized 
cell  life  give  rise  not  only  to  animal  organisms,  but  to  a  higher, 
organized,  personal  life  which  reacts  strongly  to  preserve  and 
perpetuate  the  component  cell  units,  and  that  the  more  intelligent 
that  personal  life  becomes,  the  stronger  grows  the  effort  for  self- 
maintenance  and  self -salvation. 

To  have  a  human  personality,  with  mind  and  reason,  with 
memory  running  back  to  childhood,  binding  the  entire  life  experi- 
ence together  and  blending  it  in  a  coherent  whole,  the  brain  neurons 
must  largely  survive  throughout  the  personal  lifetime;  the  cell 
must  live  on,  its  individual  life  must  be  preserved. 

This  marvelously  organized  animal  body  which  we  inherit, 
the  origins  of  which  are  in  the  depths  of  unhistoric  time,  has 
come  up  under  nature,  self-maintaining,  self-repairing,  in  obedi- 
ence to  an  instinct  and  impulse  to  live  on  and  not  die.  It  is  the 
embodiment  of  the  cell  effort  to  be  deathless.  It  started  and  de- 
veloped to  that  end.  The  impulse  to  this  comes  from  the  sen- 
tience of  the  cells  —  the  sentient  side  of  matter.  It  is  a  self- 
sentient  mechanism  which  feels  its  hurts  and  possesses  the  re- 
source of  self-repair.  From  perception  of  injury  issues  energy 
for  restoration,  as,  for  example,  when  a  muscle  is  wounded,  or  a 
bone  broken.  Even  the  blood  circulatory  tubes  grow  again,  and 
are  repaired  and  reopened,  round  and  about,  as  the  wants  of  the 
tissues  make  urgency.  Wherever  a  sense  of  loss,  damage  and 
danger  is  felt,  this  current  of  vis  viva  stimulates  the  leucocytes 
to  act  and  sets  the  cells  of  the  injured  organ  in  extraordinary 
activity  to  produce  new  tissue.  Something  more  and  in  addition 
to  chemical  action  is  displayed  here ;  it  is  chemical  action,  prompted 
and  initiated  by  sentience,  by  a  swift  current  of  minute  corpuscles, 
out-flowing  at  the  command  of  self-consciousness,  bearing  its  will 
to  the  cells. 

It  is  the  nature  of  this  current,  this  stimulus  from  the  neurons, 
that  we  have  great  need  to  study  and  control ;  to  learn  how  it  may 
be  generated,  artificially  perhaps,  and  how  it  may  be  used  to  stim- 
ulate repairs  throughout  the  organism. 

The  growth  of  biological  knowledge,  during  the  decade,  has 
greatly  enlarged  our  conceptions  of  what  the  cell-of-life  is  capable 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  183 

of  doing  and  becoming.  We  are  recognizing  more  fully  than  ever 
before  its  inherent  plasticity  and  marvelous  adaptability  to  every 
form  and  use  in  organized  life.  And  when  we  contemplate  these 
astounding  metamorphoses  as  seen  in  the  intricacies  of  insect 
mechanism,  the  beauty  of  flowers,  the  texture  of  ivory,  bone  and 
shell,  the  coining  of  spore  and  germ,  the  achieved  resistance  to 
cold  and  heat,  and,  in  brain,  the  elevation  of  simple  sentience 
to  intellect;  when  we  contemplate  these  marvelous  achievements 
of  the  cell,  past  and  present,  there  seems  no  good  reason  to  doubt 
that  this  same  cell  may  achieve  greatly  prolonged  life  —  if  it 
sets  itself  to  the  task.  Prolonged  life  would  be  a  feat  no  greater 
than  others  which  it  has  accomplished  in  the  past.  Our  survey 
of  organized  life  constantly  strengthens  this  conception  of  the 
cell's  plasticity  and  its  possibilities.  It  may  be  molded,  bent,  and 
directed  to  do  almost  anything,  perform  almost  any  function  and 
live  briefly,  or  long,  as  the  greater  life  or  personality  of  the  organ- 
ism enjoins  upon  it.  It  is  Nature's  Proteus  and  may  be  made  to 
live  a  day,  or  a  millennium. 

For  slowly,  over  the  stumbling-blocks  of  many  errors  and  mis- 
leading hypotheses  in  the  past,  we  have  been  drawn  to  the  con- 
clusion, that  although  the  tissue  cell  is  still  seen  to  decline  and  die 
with  the  organism,  there  is  attainable  for  it  an  exceptionally 
well-nourished,  well-protected  condition  where  it  may  live  on 
without  time  limit.  We  mean  by  this  that  the  alleviation  of  old 
age  is  now  as  largely  a  question  of  regulating  and  controlling 
the  life  of  the  organism  —  this  larger  personal  life  —  as  of  com- 
bating intrinsic  obstacles  to  long  life  in  the  cell  itself;  that  it  is 
the  organism  as  well  as  its  component  cells  which  must  be  put  in 
trim  for  longer  life.  What  the  cell  needs  to  insure  its  continuance 
in  function  and  in  life,  is  stimultts  from  the  organism  as  a  whole, 
and  that  atmosphere,  or  aura,  of  vitality,  which  pervades  a  healthy, 
strong  animal  body.  As  long  as  these  stimuli  remain  constant  and 
strong,  and  the  cells  are  well  nourished,  they  are  not  of  themselves 
the  sole  factors  of  old  age.  It  is  the  whole  life  of  the  organism 
that  quickens  cell  life;  that  is  to  say,  the  volume  or  sum  total  of 
cell  life  in  the  animal  body  when  well  blended  in  a  vital  aura, 
seems  adequate  to  stimulate  and  maintain  in  healthy  function  each 
individual  cell  of  the  vast  union  for  much  more  than  a  century. 
Blended  together,  these  millions  of  cell  lives  maintain  a  stable  vital 


184  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

atmosphere,  which  sustains,  invigorates  and  reacts,  and  but  for 
damage,  and  errata  in  nutrition,  would  do  so  for  great  periods  of 
time. 

Yet  let  no  misapprehension  accompany  this  deduction.  The  cell 
is  itself  a  small  organism  which,  as  it  at  present  lives,  suffers  an 
old-aging  process,  a  progressive  deterioration;  although  the  ideal 
and  intent  of  the  metazoic  union  is  to  purv'cy  for  the  cell  a  perfect, 
deathless  life. 

This  ideal  and  intent  are  quite  possible  of  accomplishment.  If 
the  chemical  processes  on  which  life  founds  could  be  conducted  in 
the  cell  as  accurately  as  w^e  often  see  done  in  ordinary  chemical 
synthesis,  the  cell  might  live  forever.  By  this  we  mean  to  say 
that  terrestrial  chemistry,  at  its  best,  guarantees  deathless  life  to  a 
cell,  or  an  organized  union  of  cells.  But  the  nutrition  of  the  cells, 
as  it  goes  on  in  the  human  organism,  is  still  far  from  well  ac- 
complished. 

There  is  therefore,  first,  cell  old  age,  and  following  it,  organic 
old  age.  Our  problem  of  alleviation  is  concerned  w^ith  both,  but 
the  former  primarily.  If  we  could  induce  a  chemically  perfect 
nutrition  of  the  cell,  or  even  better  it  largely,  the  old-aging  of 
the  human  organism  would  be  vastly  retarded,  if  not  arrested. 

The  unified,  organized  metazoic  life  of  cells  in  an  animal  organ- 
ism, aims  at  perfect  cell  nutrition  from  the  blood,  aims  at  it,  but 
still  fails  of  it. 

OLD  AGE  AS  INDUCED  BY  HEREDITY 

Biologically  speaking,  it  has  to  be  conceded  that  the  human 
organism,  as  descended  from  our  anthropoid  ancestry,  is  not  an 
ideal  one,  considered  as  a  basis  on  which  to  work  for  scientific 
improvement  witli  a  view  to  greatly  prolonged  life.  It  is  what 
nature  has  produced  in  the  teeth  of  hard  conditions.  We  have 
to  accept  it  and  do  what  we  can  with  it.  Finding  fault  with  it, 
despairing  of  it,  or  flouting  its  imperfections,  will  not  assist.  We 
have  to  work  w^ith  a  clumsy  apparatus  for  nutrition,  all  the  fea- 
tures and  processes  of  which  are  entailed  upon  us  by  hereditary 
bias  in  the  cell,  a  predisposition  so  strong,  so  fixed,  that  weaken- 
ing it  by  desuetude  and  changing  it  by  better  foods,  bid  fair  to  be 
the  slow  work  of  time ;  —  evolution  which  devolves  devolution. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  185 

We  cannot  turn  back  the  hands  of  time  for  ten  milhon  years 
and  begin  again  with  a  simple  union  of  cells  in  the  ancestral  newt, 
and  give  skilled  direction  to  its  development  to  a  higher  form  of 
organized  life,  simplifying  its  necessary  organs,  eliminating  me- 
chanical absurdities,  avoiding,  too,  these  strange  alternations  of 
plan  and  the  resultant  desuete  structures  which  came  from  changed 
habitat  and  changed  food,  all  with  their  inveterate  tendencies  to 
reproduce  and  perpetuate  themselves.  In  very  truth,  we  may  be 
said  to  inlierit  an  organism  bonded  to  heredity;  a  congeries  of  cell 
groups,  bent,  biased  and  indoctrined,  so  to  speak,  by  millions  of 
years  of  bad  living.  We  have  come  down  from  a  creature  that,  in 
the  struggle  to  survive,  headed  first  one  way  then  another;  first  a 
swimmer  in  the  waters,  then  a  plodder  on  the  emerging  lands ;  first 
a  savage  glutton  of  the  marshes,  then  a  starving,  howling  climber 
in  the  forest.  They  are  in  us  still,  with  all  their  diverse  cell  tend- 
encies. 

And  now  —  in  the  fight  of  greater  knowledge  and  higher  ideals 
—  we  have  to  take  that  ancient  organism,  that  heirloom  from 
primeval  ancestry,  that  earth-born  beast,  and  transform  it  to  a 
god! 

Little  wonder  that  physiologists  and  those  who  know  the  human 
body  best,  who  understand  heredity  most  clearly,  smile  superior  on 
this  contention  and  say  the  hope  of  immortal  life  in  a  terrestrial 
organism  is  an  ignis' fatuus  —  a  fatuous  hope  which  can  but  end, 
finally,  in  a  deeper  despair.  Ten  million  years  of  heredity  bar  the 
way,  they  tell  us;  an  heredity  which  is  condensed  and  bottled  up 
in  each  tissue  cell  of  the  body,  and  which  will  condemn  the  cell  to 
follow  a  beaten  track  for  all  future  time.  Useless  the  struggle  to 
break  away  from  our  past,  or  even  to  greatly  improve  it.  The 
tgg  of  the  crow  inevitably  becomes  a  crow ;  of  the  ant,  an  ant. 
The  tiger  cub  becomes  a  tiger,  even  when  fed  on  rice  and  cream. 
No  change  of  food  or  environment  visibly  alters  the  human  type  in 
one  generation.  Some  little  range  of  individuality  is  observed. 
But  we  revert.  The  cycle  is  established.  The  gates  to  anotiier 
order  of  being  are  closed  by  heredity.  Despair  then  of  immortal 
life,  they  tell  us  —  except  possibly  as  a  ghost  —  and  be  content.  Ii 
is  all  there  is  for  us  here. 

But  friends  of  the  facile  judgment,  critics  of  the  easy  conclu- 
sion, with  all  your  erudition,  you  have  overlooked  a  factor.     You 


l86  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

have  fixed  your  attention  solely  on  the  conservative  faculty  of  the 
cell.  It  possesses  another,  the  creative  faculty,  and  in  the  last  analy- 
sis, creation  is  but  change.  The  cell-of-life  possesses  the  power  to 
change  (evolution)  as  well  as  the  power  to  perpetuate  (heredity). 
In  accord  with  the  conditions  on  the  earth's  surface,  the  cell-of- 
life  has  developed  the  human  body  and  conserv^es  it  by  heredity. 
But  the  same  creative  power  in  the  cell  which  produced  organism, 
will  change  it,  when  the  conditions  are  changed  and  call  for  it ;  and 
science  is  now  changing  and  improving  all  the  conditions  under 
which  human  beings  live. 


TERRESTRIAL  LIFE  AS  LIMITED  BY  PHYSICAL 

ACCIDENTS 

It  has  also  been  argued,  that  even  if  disease  and  old  age  could 
be  successfully  combated  and  overcome,  fatal  physical  accidents 
would,  as  they  average,  cut  personal  life  short  once  in  three  cen- 
turies, at  longest.  And  hence,  from  the  very  nature  of  our  terres- 
trial environment,  anything  like  deathless  Hfe  is  a  vain  dream. 

Fatalities  from  physical  accidents,  however,  are  due  largely, 
almost  entirely,  to  the  reckless  manner  in  which  human  beings  now 
live  and  move  about.  Death,  at  best,  being  held  to  be  certain,  they 
constantly  take  chances  of  accident  from  locomotion,  machinery, 
electric  discharges,  anger  with  their  fellows  and  entering  danger- 
ous places. 

It  would  follow  naturally,  however,  that  a  group  of  persons 
who  had  attained  immunity  from  disease  and  old-aging,  would 
organize  a  community  life  in  a  vivarium,  or  in  a  region  rendered 
practically  safe  and  secure  from  accident.  If  we  were  sure  of 
deathless  life  otherwise,  we  would,  logically,  take  no  chance  of 
accidental  crushing  or  maiming.  It  is  not  difficult  to  foresee  that 
an  organized  community  of  deathless  beings  would  perfect  for 
their  residence  a  vivarium  which  would  come  to  realize  the  fond 
human  aspiration  for  "  heaven  "  —  a  beatified  home  of  life,  from 
which  the  liability  of  accident  would  be  excluded  largely  or  wholly. 
This  elimination  of  physical  accidents  would,  we  repeat,  follow 
logically  and  surely  on  the  attainment  of  immunity  from  disease 
and  old-aging. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  1 87 

THE  REPRODUCTION  THEORY  OF  OLD   AGE 

There  is  yet  another  probable  cause  of  old-aging  and  organic 
death,  still  obscure  and  greatly  in  need  of  clear  demonstration  and 
regulation,  namely,  reproduction. 

As  the  embryo  grows  to  the  infant  and  the  infant  to  the  adult, 
the  tissue  cells  have  room  in  the  still  plastic  and  elastic  organism, 
for  multiplication  and  expansion  up  to  the  type  limits.  When 
these  limits  are  reached,  multiplication  of  cells  in  the  specialized 
tissues  and  organs  is  repressed  by  the  organic  plan,  and  forced  to 
cease  from  further  growth. 

But  in  the  adolescent  organism  and  throughout  young  adult  life, 
the  pressure  to  grow  continues ;  and,  according  to  this  theory,  it  is 
the  pressure  of  the  component  cell  life  of  the  organism  for  more 
room,  that  gives  rise  to  the  sex  passion.  Love,  the  desire  for 
mating,  is  the  stress  of  the  cell  to  burst  its  limits  and  grow  some- 
where else,  namely,  in  offspring.  The  manner  in  which  growth 
pressure  finds  expression  and  direction  is  through,  or  by  means  of, 
the  glands  of  reproduction,  which,  as  the  stress  increases,  are 
stimulated  to  maximum  activity.  Of  the  reactive  processes  that 
here  ensue,  however,  little  is  known  as  yet,  further  than  that  a 
factitious  sexual  salacity  may  be  induced  even  in  old  organisms, 
by  engrafting  reproductive  glands  from  younger  ones. 

In  other  words,  it  is  the  longing  of  the  whole  cell  union  to  pour 
itself  forth  and  escape  compression:  those  limits  which  gravity 
and  the  ensemble  of  terrestrial  conditions  have  set  to  life  in 
animal  organisms. 

Forced  to  cease  from  actual  cell  multiplication  and  outspreading 
growth  in  the  tissues,  the  cells  of  the  adolescent  and  adult  organ- 
ism adopt  a  new  mode  of  growth  and  fructify  in  a  species  of  ex- 
ceedingly minute  seniina,  or  cell  seeds,  which  eventually  garner 
themselves  in  the  organs  of  reproduction;  and  in  the  congress  of 
the  sexes  are  given  forth  to  develop  as  new  organisms.  Repro- 
duction therefore  results  from  a  secondary  mode  of  growth  of  the 
component  cells  brought  about  by  duress  of  the  type  limits. 

This  may  be  deemed  a  prosaic  view  of  la  belle  passion  concern- 
ing which  poets  and  novelists  have  sung,  rhapsodized  and  some- 
times whined,  in  all  ages,  and  filled  vast  library  stacks  of  romantic 


l88  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

literature ;  yet  the  above  is  the  physiological  raison  d'etre  of  it :  — 
the  pressure  of  the  cell  life,  in  the  organism,  for  more  room.  As 
the  result  of  that  duress  of  pressure  to  grow,  the  component  cell 
life  coins  or  concentrates  itself  in  minute  semina  which  permeate 
the  whole  organism,  giving  it  for  a  season  wondrous  phases  of 
beaut)'',  strength  and  ambition.  Under  stress  of  this  crescent  tide 
of  cell  semina,  the  young  hero  fights,  labors,  sings  chansons,  or 
fares  forth  into  far  countries  to  possess  himself  of  a  mate  in 
whom  he  may  implant  the  clamorous  surplus  of  his  cell  growth. 
Having  found  her,  he  gives  it  forth,  in  conjunction  with  hers,  to 
form  offspring;  since  the  child  is  but  a  passing  of  the  cell  life  of 
the  parents  to  a  new  field  for  growth.  The  entire  reproduction 
period  of  adult  life  is  a  time  of  cell  migration  to  new  organisms. 
Having  filled  the  type  limits,  the  cell  life  migrates  in  offspring,  and 
leaves  the  parent  organism  to  become  desuete  and  die. 

"  Growing  old,"  therefore,  by  this  hypothesis,  means  a  giving 
up  of  the  constituents  of  cell  life,  to  be  transplanted  to  new  organ- 
isms. The  reproductive  tissue  is  not  a  germ-plasm  —  as  Weiss- 
mann  once  told  us  —  which  grows  independently  from  parent  to 
child,  adown  the  centuries,  but  an  organ  for  embodying  the  fructi- 
fication of  the  thirty  or  more  differentiations  of  cells  in  the  organ- 
ism, a  fructification  which  is  the  result  of  the  cell  demand  for  new 
fields  of  growth. 

Ordinary  proliferation  of  the  cells  being  no  longer  possible,  a 
necessitated  new  method  of  growth  begins  in  well-nigh  infinitely 
minute  seeds  of  cells,  which  freely  traverse,  permeate  and  circulate 
throughout  the  organism,  in  unnumbered  myriads ;  tides  on  tides  of 
them,  each  cell  giving  rise,  apparently,  to  millions,  which  form  a 
wonderfully  invigorating  aura.  It  is  this  effluence  of  cell  semina 
which  actuates  the  entire  reproductive  effort  of  animal  life.  For 
we  have  to  conceive  of  each  and  every  one  of  these  cell  semina 
as  embodying  the  basis  and  promise  of  a  new  cell  of  the  species 
of  the  parent  cell  from  which  it  has  emerged. 

The  actual  size  of  a  cell  seed  is  as  yet  purely  a  matter  of 
speculation;  perhaps  not  much  larger  than  the  protoplasmic  mole- 
cule, perhaps  that  vivific  molecule,  itself,  which  —  much  as  the 
electron  irradiates  from  the  atom  —  emerges  from  the  cell  by 
millions.  It  would  not  be  an  improbable  conjecture  that  a  well- 
nigh  infinite  number  of  them,  each  containing  the  germ  promise 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  189 

of  a  new  cell  of  muscle,  nerve  or  gland,  are  garnered  in  an  animal 
ovum,  or  a  spermatozoon. 

The  cell-of-life  exhibits  many  different  methods,  or  rather 
phases,  of  growth,  although  the  principle  and  object  attained, 
remain  the  same,  namely,  by  fission,  extrusion,  "  budding,"  etc.,  as 
the  contiguous  environment  necessitates. 

Cell  fructification  in  this  case  appears  to  be  an  effluence  of 
protoplasmic  molecules,  pressed  outward  through  the  cell  envelope 
when  there  is  not  room  for  putting  forth  a  daughter  cell  entire. 
For  we  have  come  to  regard  the  cell-of-life  as  an  organized  com- 
munity of  protoplasmic  molecules,  which  seeks  to  grow  by  multi- 
plication of  these  molecules.  When  unrestrained  by  its  environ- 
ment, the  molecules  increase  in  numbers  up  to  the  type  limits  of 
the  cell,  then  segregate  by  fission  of  the  parent  cell  and  form  two 
new  cells.  But  when  the  cell  is  delimited,  as  it  is  in  an  adult  tissue 
or  organ  of  the  animal,  the  new  cell  cannot  burst  forth,  and 
growth  is  confined  to  an  extruded  effluence. 

Free  cell  multiplication  by  fission  is  not  a  little  as  when  a  new 
swarm  of  bees  emerges  en  masse  from  the  parent  swarm,  and 
practically  two  new  swarms  are  formed,  one  remaining  in  the  hive, 
the  other  moving  on  to  a  new  place.  But  if,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
tissue  cell  in  the  adult  animal  organism,  there  was  no  rcx)m  for  the 
daughter  swarm  to  come  forth  en  masse,  the  excess  of  young 
bees  would  be  compelled  to  emerge  from  the  hive,  one  by  one,  and 
fly  away,  to  gather  together,  perhaps,  in  some  far-off  place  of 
refuge,  where  they  would  be  able  to  collect  and  organize  them- 
selves as  a  new  swarm. 

Darwin's  conception  of  cell  growth,  has  given  us  some  idea  of 
the  exceedingly  minute  size  of  the  emanant  protoplasmic  semina 
(gemmules)  and  the  voluminous  tides  of  them  that  are  pressed 
forth  into  the  sanguineous,  or  the  nervous  circulation.  More 
specifically  defined,  the  overflow  of  cell  growth  when  the  type 
limits  are  reached,  is  an  overflowing  of  chromatin-heredity  germs 
from  the  cell  nucleus,  possibly  chromatin  molecules;  an  output 
from  the  chromosomes  which  the  sex  glands  of  the  organism  ap- 
pear to  attract  and  concentrate  in  the  reproductive  cells.  It  is 
thus  that  the  heredity-chromatin,  or  germ-plasm  of  the  race,  is 
transmitted  down  the  generations  of  mankind.  This  human 
germ-plasm  is  the  evolution  of  millions  of  years,   and  goes   on 


190  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

continuously  with  but  slight  regard  for  the  individual  man;  and 
yet  each  successive  generation  of  somatic  cells  contributes  new 
influences  which  help  shape  our  race  destiny  —  for  good  or  for 
evil. 

Infallibly  we  are  next  led  to  inquire  what  directive  impulse  leads 
all  this  multiplicity  of  cell  semina  in  the  ovum,  to  organize  in  the 
orderly  arrangement  of  the  embryo,  each  germ  with  its  mates,  to 
form  the  various  tissues  and  organs,  segregating  and  cleaving 
apart  in  the  three  layers  from  which  the  foetus  develops.  Our 
theory  of  it  would  be  that  a  sentient  perception  of  kinship,  or 
fellowship,  leads  each  living  germ  of  a  cell  to  foregather  with  its 
kind,  to  grow  into  the  future  tissues  of  a  new  organism. 

Founding  on  this  theory,  a  regimen  for  the  conservation  of  the 
cell  semina,  would  embrace  many  considerations,  moral,  mental 
and  physiological.  Ever  after  the  type  limits  of  the  organism  are 
reached,  the  cells  emit  a  flux  of  semina,  but  these,  instead  of  organ- 
izing to  form  new  cells,  are  extruded,  enter  the  circulation,  and 
form  a  protective,  stimulative  aura,  which  greatly  strengthens  the 
personality.  It  is,  in  very  truth,  an  atmosphere  of  life,  since  the 
constituent  particles  of  it  are  living  particles,  capable,  each,  of 
producing  a  new  cell  of  the  type  and  species  of  that  from  which  it 
has  been  extruded.  Hence  originates  the  organism's  wonderful 
capacity  of  self-repair  and  self-renewal. 

In  this  connection  it  is  useful  to  call  to  mind  the  "  physiological 
units "  of  Spencer,  the  plastidules  of  H?eckel,  the  biophors  of 
Weissmann  and  Darwin's  ideas  of  pangenesis.  Conceptions  and 
theories  as  to  the  extrusion  of  living  molecules  from  the  encysted 
cell-of-life  have  naturally  presented  themselves  to  all  who  have 
studied  these  problems. 

Beyond  much  doubt,  too,  the  migrant  protoplasmic  molecule  is 
complexly  organized,  since  it  has  in  it  the  plan  of  a  new  cell  and 
also  transmits  a  semblance  of  memory  as  to  the  former  life  of  the 
cell  from  which  it  emerged. 

As  has  been  previously  shown,  too,  the  protoplasmic  molecule 
has,  under  favorable  conditions,  unlimited  capacity  for  self-redupli- 
cation. Given  unrestricted  nutrition,  by  foods,  chemically  pure, 
free  from  poisonous  or  refractory  substances,  this  living  mole- 
cule  would    apparently   go   on   multiplying    itself    forever,    trans- 


I 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I9I 

mitting  to  each  daughter  molecule  its  own  characteristics,  its  own 
memory  of  past  life.  From  which  it  is  argued  that  if  the  cells  in 
the  human  body  could  be  uniformly  nourished  and  not  become  too 
rigidly  encysted  in  the  tissues,  the  component  molecules  would  go 
on  reduplicating  themselves  for  centuries,  maintaining  the  aura  of 
the  personal  life. 

Sex  excesses  which  drain  away  these  seeds  of  cells,  causing  a 
resultant  diminution  of  them  in  the  ovum  and  spermazoon,  give 
rise,  as  is  well  known,  to  feebler  offspring,  possessing  less  stamina 
to  resist  disease  and  less  endurance  generally.  The  reason  for  this 
is  a  partly  mathematical  one ;  less  vivific  molecules  are  transmitted. 
If  five  quadrillions  of  them  are  garnered  in  a  normal  ovum,  and 
but  five  trillions  find  their  way  there,  the  inference  is  not  difficult. 
But  the  purely  fanciful  Traduction  theory  of  former  philosophers, 
namely,  that  a  certain  fixed  number  of  living  molecules  were 
arbitrarily  "  created  "  when  life  on  earth  began,  and  that  living 
organisms  are  steadily  but  surely  expending  this  original  endow- 
ment, finds  no  confirmation  in  modern  physiology.  The  living 
protoplasmic  molecule  has  the  power  to  reproduce  itself  and  does 
so  constantly  in  the  animal  organism.  Animal  organisms  are  not 
running  out  an  irreplaceable  supply,  but  create  one  for  themselves, 
when  properly  nourished.  A  single  cell  —  a  bacterium,  for  ex- 
ample—  if  placed  in  a  medium  suitable  for  redupHcation,  has  it 
in  its  power  to  fill  a  universe  with  its  offspring. 

As  human  life  is  lived  at  present,  it  is  evident  that  throughout 
early  adult  life  a  very  undue  depletion  of  the  cell  semina  takes 
place.  The  output  is  squandered.  The  life-invigorating  aura,  de- 
rived from  the  normal  fructification  of  the  component  cells  of  the 
organism  as  a  whole,  is  drained  off  wastefully  at  the  instigation 
of  a  wholly  abnormal  sex  passion,  amounting  to  erotism. 

The  real  nature  and  rationale  of  what  is  thus  wasted  is  not  un- 
derstood, or  rather  wholly  misunderstood.  The  lower  animals 
have  their  regular  periods  for  sexual  congress,  after  long  intervals 
for  rest  and  recuperation  from  these  expenditures.  But  human 
beings,  from  unnatural  stimulation,  have  made  their  sex  expendi- 
tures continuous.  Under  the  conditions  of  our  present  civilization, 
the  human  imagination  has  become  largely  deranged,  and  normal 
sex  hunger  perverted.  The  young  are  allowed  to  regard  marriage 
as  license   for  a  constant,   unrestrained   indulgence   in   lust.      An 


192  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

abnormal  propensity  to  venery  has  come  to  be  transmitted  from 
parent  to  offspring,  often  manifesting  itself  in  childhood.  Im- 
proper foods  foster  it.  Much  of  the  fiction  writing  of  the  times 
contributes  to  lustfulness;  the  "best  sellers"  are  those  most 
erotic;  and  not  one  parent  in  a  hundred  realizes,  or  objects  to,  the 
physiological  detriment  thus  done  to  a  generation  of  young  people, 
born  into  the  world  too  prurient  at  the  outset,  with  pelvic  nerve 
plexuses  weakly  prone  to  excitation. 

The  net  result  of  the  licensed  venery  of  modern  marriage,  is 
seen  in  successive  generations  of  w^omen,  subject  to  all  manner  of 
pelvic  weaknesses  and  diseases,  accompanied  by  a  general  en- 
feeblement  of  the  female  sex;  and  in  men,  by  seminal  weakness, 
enlargement  of  the  prostate,  and  consequent  bladder  troubles, 
needing  surgical  interference  by  the  time  the  age  of  sixty  is 
reached,  resulting,  wath  at  least  thirty  per  cent,  of  all  males,  in 
premature  death. 

The  bearing  of  these  facts  on  the  problem  of  arresting  old  age, 
is  obvious. 

An  abnormal  waste  of  the  cell  seed  (protoplasmic  molecules)  is 
set  up  which  by  reason  of  the  habitual  enfeeblement  it  occasions, 
markedly  hastens  the  binding  out  and  encysting  of  the  cells  in  the 
adult  organism. 

The  only  practical  remedy  at  present,  lies  in  proper  physiological 
education  of  the  young  in  regard  to  the  procreative  function ;  aboli- 
tion of  erotic  literature;  and  repression,  so  far  as  practicable,  of 
the  many  other  tendencies  to  lasciviousness  in  children. 


DOES  GRAVITATION  CAUSE  OLD  AGE? 

Gravitation  —  the  dead  weight  of  matter  —  has  also  been  held 
to  be  a  primary  cause  of  the  old-aging  and  death  of  organic  life 
on  the  earth's  surface,  as  w^ell  as  fatal  physical  accidents :  a  con- 
tention not  without  force  in  view  of  the  fact  that  life  acts  con- 
stantly in  opposition  to  gravity,  tending  to  overcome  it  in  locomo- 
tion and  the  phenomena  exhibited  by  living  beings  generally. 
Gravity,  it  is  held,  tires  life  incessantly,  and  in  the  end,  tires  it 
out,  as  seen  in  the  chronic  fatigue  of  aged  organisms.  Animal 
life  is  thus  a  long,  unrelieved  effort  to  resist  gravitation ;  and  thus 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I93 

far,  it  is  held,  gravity  has  won  in  the  end :  gravitation  being  de- 
fined as  the  final  resultant  effect  of  the  totality  of  physical  forces, 
actuating  matter  universally. 

But  considered  as  an  irremediable  cause  of  old  age  and  death, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  life  in  young,  unvitiated  cells  shows 
the  ability  to  successfully  stem  gravitation  and  continues  to  do  so 
until  enfeebled  by  other  causes. 


OLD  AGE  FROM  NECROSIS  OF  THE  CELLS 

A  physician  of  New  York  City,  Dr.  Fenton  B.  Turck,  has 
presented  a  theory  of  old  age  from  the  death  of  the  cell  life  of  the 
organism.  According  to  this  investigator  the  cells  of  the  tissues 
die  in  numbers,  and  in  so  doing  give  rise  to  a  toxin  which  under 
certain  conditions  stimulates  new  cell  growths,  but  sometimes, 
when  in  excess,  occasions  widespread  poisoning  of  the  cell  life. 


IS  OLD  AGE  FROM   THE   CHEMICAL  AFFINITIES   OF 

MATTER? 

Chemical  affinities,  so  called,  have  also  been  held  to  be  a  primary 
cause  of  the  old-aging  and  death  of  organic  life  on  earth,  meaning 
by  chemical  affinities,  the  force,  often  violent  and  destructive,  with 
which  the  elements  of  matter  combine,  or  the  combinations  disrupt. 
Bearing  in  mind,  too,  that  organic  life  is  maintained  only  by 
means  of  a  complex  series  of  such  combinations,  to  wit,  oxygena- 
tion, assimilation  and  nutrition  of  the  component  cell  life  of  the 
body. 

In  every  large  organism  like  that  of  man,  a  great  deal  of  ran- 
dom uncontrolled  chemical  action  takes  place,  at  times  suddenly 
destructive  of  the  personal  life,  and  probably  constantly  obstruct- 
ive to  it,  always  intimately  connected  with  the  activities  of 
bacteria  in  the  internal  cavities  of  the  body. 

Better  food,  better  habits  of  the  body  and  a  general  amelioration 
of  the  errata  of  nutrition  and  digestion,  would  seem  to  be  the 
indicated  remedy. 


194  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

OLD-AGING  FROM   INSUFFICIENT   SLEEP 

Another  proximate  cause  of  premature  old-aging  is  imperfect 
sleep,  lack  of  proper  rest  for  the  brain  neurons,  from  faulty 
methods  and  insufficient  hours  of  sleeping.  A  lamentable  number 
of  cases  of  this  occur  in  adults,  as  middle  life  is  reached,  especially 
among  ambitious,  hard-worked  business  men,  who  find  them- 
selves unrested  from  day  to  day,  nervously  depleted  and  victims 
of  insomnia.     In  these  cases  the  kidneys  immediately  suffer. 

Several  of  our  physiologists.  Professor  Hodge  among  the  first, 
have  demonstrated  the  visible,  physical  effects  of  fatigue  in  the 
nerve  cell,  the  shrinkage  in  substance  and  lack  of  functional 
power;  also  the  direct  results  of  rest  and  food  for  the  restoration 
of  a  tired  cell  to  its  normal  size  and  condition  of  dynamic  effi- 
ciency. 

Sleep,  with  the  diurnal  darkening  of  the  hemispheres,  is  the 
time  when  all  the  millions  of  brain  neurons  cease  acting  in  their 
united,  corporate  capacity  and  revert  each  to  its  own  personal, 
unicellular  life.  Through  the  hours  of  daylight  they  act  together 
as  a  whole,  for  the  good  of  the  entire  organism.  But  now,  when 
sleep  supervenes,  continuity  is  broken,  the  resultant  self -conscious- 
ness stops  short,  the  personality  ceases,  and  each  individual  cell 
attends  to  its  own  personal  wants,  namely,  nutrition,  expulsion  of 
waste  products,  self-adjustment,  and  rest.  Sleep  is  the  time  when 
the  brain  cell  is  again  living  the  original  unicellular  life  of  its 
remote  ancestry,  resting,  restoring  its  powers. 

So  exhausting  is  the  daily,  corporate  life,  that  this  alternating 
period  of  cell  rest  is  necessary  to  the  neuron's  restoration.  It 
must  have  time  to  attend  to  its  unicellular  wants  and  necessities 
before  again  devoting  itself  to  the  united  brain  life  of  another  day. 

It  is  not  difficult,  therefore,  to  understand  what  takes  place  when 
from  any  cause  the  cell  is  prevented  from  properly  attending  to 
this  its  necessary  individual  life,  that  is,  when  it  does  not  wholly 
break  continuity  with  the  other  cells ;  w4ien  its  waste  products, 
accumulating  during  the  day,  are  not  cast  forth ;  and  when  it  is 
not  permitted  to  pass  into  a  state  of  cell  rest.  Disturbed,  broken 
sleep  leads  to  constant  interruptions  of  these  necessary  processes 
of  unicellular  life.     The  brain  is  now  like  an  army  of  soldiers, 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I95 

harassed  by  constant  night  attacks,  to  the  extent  that  the  individual 
soldier  is  kept  in  line,  day  and  night,  with  no  time  to  eat,  sleep, 
or  attend  to  his  personal  wants. 

The  brain  cells,  although  still  unrested,  and  but  half  purged  of 
their  waste  products,  are  compelled  to  resume  unification  in  self- 
consciousness,  when  a  person  wakes.  In  consequence,  they  enter 
upon  the  labor  of  another  day,  fagged  and  unrested  —  the  con- 
dition which  thousands  of  our  people  know  so  well. 

In  time,  these  cumulative  effects  of  unrelieved  fatigue  show 
themselves  in  depressed  function  throughout  the  organism;  the 
organic  harmony  is  vitiated;  nutrition  is  permanently  impaired; 
and  a  shrunken,  deranged  condition  of  the  neurons  becomes 
chronic.  Pari  passu,  the  personality  slackens,  and  character  sinks 
to  lower  levels.  In  fact,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  humanity 
at  present  is  composed  largely  of  the  chronically  tired.  The 
process  of  cell  deterioration  begins,  and  the  first  downward  step 
is  taken,  when  we  rise  in  the  morning  with  a  distinct  sense  of 
being  not  yet  rested,  and  enter  on  the  toils  and  duties  of  the  day 
still  unrefreshed. 

In  America,  at  present,  no  other  one  reform  is  so  urgently  de- 
manded for  the  national  well-being,  as  proper,  normal  rest  for  the 
brain  cells  of  the  people.  After  the  age  of  thirty  few  among  us 
know  what  natural  sleep  and  sound  rest  are,  or  ever  will  know 
again.  For  many  have  passed  the  point  of  brain  damage  where 
sound  rest  can  again  come  to  them.  Thousands  of  these  hapless 
ones  take  refuge  in  that  dreary  land  of  drugged  slumber,  where 
chloral,  morphia  and  the  later  host  of  commercial  nostrums  hold 
nightly  orgies  over  "  the  carcase  of  murdered  sleep." 

All  of  us  who  have  had  a  normal  childhood  and  youth,  can  recall 
the  time  when  we  were  wont  to  wake  in  the  morning  feeling 
rested,  with  a  willingness  to  rise  and  resume  the  business  and 
pleasures  of  living;  when  we  wakened  with  a  happy  sense  of  hav- 
ing been  soundly  asleep,  so  soundly  that  the  world  looks  almost 
strange  for  the  moment,  in  its  newness.  That  is  the  normal  time, 
when  the  neurons  are  properly  refreshed  and  renovated;  it  is  that 
ideal  condition  which  we  should  strive  to  maintain  through  life. 


196  IMMORl'AL    LIFE 

OTHER  OPINIONS  OF  BIOLOGISTS 

In  this  connection  the  views  and  theories  of  other  biologists 
are  of  interest.  Those  of  Weissmann,  Darwin,  i\Iinot  and  others 
have  been  cited  ah'eady.  More  recently  Muhlmann  (1900-14) 
has  advanced  the  concept  that  old  age  ensues  from  emaciation  of 
the  cells,  due,  largely,  to  isolation  from  sources  of  nourishment. 

Delage  (1903)  has  held  that  old  age  comes  from  differentiation, 
that  is,  specialization  of  the  somatic  cells  to  particular  functions 
and  uses,  and  that  from  becoming  thus  specialized,  these  cells 
erelong  lose  the  power  for  further  reproduction  and  growth. 

Kassowitz  (1898)  attributed  old  age  to  accumulation  of  "  meta- 
plasm  "  in  the  cell,  which  may  be  described  as  chemically  obdurate 
products  of  imperfect  metabolism.  When  a  cell  acts  sluggishly, 
metaplasm  forms  instead  of  normal  waste  products,  and  in  time 
overburdens  the  cell  life. 

Jennings  (1912)  put  forward  a  theory  not  unlike  that  of 
Delage,  in  effect  that  the  cells  of  the  organism,  from  being  im- 
pressed to  the  duty  of  forming  muscle,  bone,  gland,  cuticle  and 
other  organic  tissues,  thereby  lose  their  capacity  for  gro\A^h  and 
reproduction. 

Enriques  (1907)  believed  that  old  age  and  death  result  from 
gradual  decline  in  the  capacity  of  the  cell  to  assimilate  nourish- 
ment, and  that  this  decline  is  associated  with  decrease  in  the 
amount  of  active,  normal  protoplasm  —  cytoplasm  —  in  the  cell 
body. 

Again,  according  to  von  Hausemann  (1909)  it  is  the  atrophy 
and  disuse  of  the  sexual  organs,  accompanied  by  the  extinction  of 
the  germ-plasm  (Weissmann),  which  induces  senile  aridity  and 
old  age. 

On  the  other  hand,  Minot,  in  his  work  on  Age,  Gronih.  and 
Death,  previously  mentioned,  held  that  old-aging  begins  even  in 
foetal  life  and  is  a  continuous  process,  associated  with  mrilccular 
changes  in  the  cytoplasm  of  the  cell,  and  an  almDrmal  enlargement 
of  the  cell  nucleus. 

Child  in  his  interesting  work  on  Senescence  and  Rejuvenes- 
cence (1915)  entertains  views  somewhat  similar  to  Minot's,  but 
only  as  regards  progressive  changes  in  the  protoplasm  of  the  cell 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  I97 

body.  He  holds  that  cell  rejuvenescence  in  animal  organisms 
takes  place  when  circumstances  favor  it,  and  inclines  to  the  opinion 
that  old-aging  is  by  no  means  a  fixed,  unalterable  law  of  life. 
Virtually,  as  a  result  of  his  researches,  this  zoologist  concludes 
that  the  cell-of-life,  vmder  most  conditions,  is  capable  of  and  still 
retains  the  capacity  for  rejuvenescence :  the  same  position  taken, 
in  a  work  entitled  Natural  Salvation,  published  from  this  labora- 
tory in  1903,  quite  without  connection  with,  or  knowledge  of,  the 
work  being  done  at  the  University  of  Chicago.  The  coincidence 
furnishes  contributory  force  in  evidence  of  the  conclusion  reached. 

Conklin  (1913)  would  appear  to  have  come  to  similar  conclu- 
sions, although  along  somewhat  dififerent  lines  of  thought. 

Jickeli  (1902)  put  forward  the  hypothesis  that  senescence  re- 
sults from  imperfect  metabolism  within  the  cell  and  the  subsequent 
clogging  of  the  cytoplasm  with  injurious  waste. 

Montgomery  (1906)  believed  that  owing  to  restrictions  of  its 
environment  in  the  tissues,  waste  products  accumulate  in  the  cell 
and  that  certain  of  these  products  are  poisonous  to  protoplasmic 
life,  or  become  so,  when  not  removed.  Senescence  is  a  general 
result  of  this  condition. 

In  contra-distinction,  Butschli  (1882)  concluded  that  old  age 
and  death  are  due  to  exhaustion  of  the  supply  of  a  certain  "  life 
ferment,"  inherited  in  the  embryo ;  while  Muller,  and  after  him 
Cohnheim,  found  the  causes  of  old-aging  in  the  general  make-up 
of  the  animal  organism,  its  physiological  imperfections  and  tend- 
ency to  "  run  down,"  in  time. 

The  impression  which  must  needs  follow  consideration  of  all  the 
theories  of  old  age,  which  from  time  to  time  appear,  is  that  each  is 
partial,  that  is  to  say.  embraces  l)ut  one  aspect  of  the  subject.  For 
example,  one  investigator  holds  that  old  age  is  due  to  differentia- 
tion of  cell  function  and  consequent  loss  of  the  power  of  growth; 
another,  that  it  comes  from  cell  stasis,  owing  to  unremoved  waste 
products ;  another,  that  the  cells  are  killed  out  by  toxins ;  still 
another,  that  the  faulty  constitution  of  the  animal  organism  tends 
to  lirief  lifetimes ;  yet  another,  that  a  progressive  change  in  the 
protoplasm  of  the  cell  leads  to  age-stiffening,  cell  tc^-pidity  and 
final  cessation  of  its  vital  activities.  Another  finds  senescence  en- 
suing from  cell  starvation:  another,  from  a  sediment  of  metab- 
oHsm;  another  from  atrophy  of  the  gcrm-plasm  in  the  sex  organs: 


198  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

and  yet  another,  to  the  exhaustion  of  a  certain  inherited   **  hfe 
ferment." 

Critically  examined,  it  becomes  evident  that  many,  the  most, 
of  these  "  causes  "'  of  old  age  are  incidental  and  of  the  nature  of 
sequences,  also  that  none  of  them  accounts  for  old  age  in  toto. 

It  appears  to  be  a  fact  that  differentiation  of  cell  function,  and 
specialization  to  different  offices  for  the  well-being  of  a  multi- 
cellular organism  as  a  whole,  does  impair,  or  rather  lessen  the 
capacity  of  the  cell  for  reproduction  and  growth.  The  mistake 
made  in  recognition  of  this,  lies  in  jumping  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  capacity  is  entirely  impaired,  or  abrogated ;  it  is  never  entirely 
abrogated  as  long  as  the  cell  life  continues. 

In  the  human  organism  the  capacity  for  cell  growth  and  repro- 
duction continues  to  the  century  mark,  in  the  male;  and  in  the 
female,  cessation,  at  an  earlier  climacteric,  occurs  from  causes 
other  than  limited  cell  capacity. 

Among  biologists  uncertainty  on  the  subject  of  cell  growth  and 
reproduction  has  arisen  from  non-recognition  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  somatic  cell  grows  after  the  type  limits  of  the  organism 
are  reached. 

The  present  writer  has  derived  much  encouragement  for  his 
views,  from  a  perusal  of  Professor  H.  F.  Osborn's  recent  work. 
The  Origin  and  Evolution  of  Life  (1917).  If  my  understanding 
of  Professor  Osborn's  view  is  not  at  fault,  he  believes  that  hitherto 
naturalists  and  biologists  in  their  long  quest  for  the  cause  of  evo- 
lution, have  made  the  mistake  of  reasoning  backward  from  the 
forms  which  the  evolution  of  life  on  the  earth  has  taken,  instead 
of  forward  from  the  cause  of  that  evolution ;  —  the  cause  of  it  re- 
siding in  the  intimate  nature  of  energy  which  has  in  it  not  only  the 
potency  of  life,  but  directive  power  to  instigate  and  produce  or- 
ganic life  as  we  see  it.  I  am  led  to  infer,  perhaps  too  hastily, 
that  Professor  Osborn  conceives  of  the  cosmic  energy  as  living 
energy,  rising,  through  organization,  to  higher  degrees  of  con- 
sciousness and  intelligence. 


IMMORTAL   LIFE 

HOW   IT  WILL  BE  ACHIEVED 
PART   II 

THE   BREEDERS'   METHOD   OF   LONGEVITY 

Advancing  from  the  foregoing  studies  and  researches  as  to  the 
source  of  Hfe,  its  methods  of  evolution  and  the  many  causes  which 
limit  and  restrict  it,  we  have  now  to  consider  the  means  by  which 
life  in  the  human  organism  may  be  prolonged  at  will,  and  death- 
less life  attained. 

And  merely  as  preliminary  to  this  more  intimate  examination 
of  agencies  for  perfecting  and  preserving  the  human  organism, 
it  will  be  appropriate  to  glance  at  a  proposed  method  of  attaining 
great  longevity  which  commends  itself  to  certain  biologists,  and 
which  may  be  described  succinctly  as  the  Breeders'  method. 

It  has  been  remarked  frequently  that  if  as  much  attention  were 
given  to  breeding  mankind  as  is  devoted  to  breeding  horses,  cattle 
and  dogs,  grand  results  might  follow.  A  prominent  American 
naturalist  is  of  the  opinion  that  a  macrobiotic  race  of  human  be- 
ings whose  length  of  days  would,  in  time,  approximate  immortal- 
ity, could  be  developed  by  mating  individuals  whose  ancestors  were 
longer-lived  than  the  average:  that  a  progressive  gain  in  the  life- 
times of  their  offspring  could  be  thus  secured  from  generation  to 
generation,  until  man  might  come  to  attain  patriarchal  ages,  and 
older. 

For  example,  if  two  young  persons  whose  grandfathers,  or 
grandmothers,  or  both,  had  reached  the  age  of  ninety,  were  to 
marry  and  have  children,  the  naturalist  would  expect  —  accidents 
of  environment  allowed  for  —  that  certain  of  the  children  of  this 
pair  would  reach  greater  age  than  ninety.  He  would  look  for  a  gain 
in  longevity,  a  gain  of  a  few  months,  at  least,  even  of  a  few  years. 

199 


200  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

four  or  five,  perhaps.  And  later,  if  the  children  or  grandchildren 
of  these  who  had  reached  the  age  of  ninety-five,  were  to  wed  and 
produce  offspring,  some  of  these  might  reasonably  be  expected 
to  reach  the  age  of  a  hundred;  and  from  these,  pari  passu,  off- 
spring would  be  looked  for  some  of  whom  would  live  to  be  a 
hundred  and  five;  —  a  hundred  and  ten;  —  a  hundred  and  fifteen; 
—  a  hundred  and  twenty,  in  extenso;  till  after  one  or  two  hundred 
generations,  and  the  lapse  of  six  thousand  years,  let  us  say,  persons 
would  be  born  whose  outlook  for  life  might  be  for  a  millennium; 
veritable  Methuselahs. 

Necessarily,  as  to  this,  the  ages  of  the  grandparents  and  great- 
grandparents  would  be  the  criteria  influencing  choice  of  mates  of 
persons  of  marriageable  age,  since  the  ages  of  their  immediate 
parents  would  not  yet  be  available  for  guidance.  ■ 

Such  knowledge  as  has  been  gained  from  experiments  in  breeding 
domestic  animals  would  lead  us  to  infer  that  there  would  be 
occasional  backsets  of  the  nature  of  reversions,  where  even  the 
offspring  of  long-lived  ancestors  might  not  make  steady  gains  in 
longevity.  So  many  factors  enter  the  problem  and  so  many 
"  faults  "  exist  in  the  long  line  of  human  ancestry  —  the  result 
of  vital  disasters  in  the  past  —  going  back  a  thousand  generations, 
that  anything  like  uniform  gain  in  longevity  from  one  generation 
to  another  could  hardly  be  looked  for.  Nature  does  not  accom- 
plish her  ends  with  mathematical  regularity ;  and  there  is  much  that 
is  still  inscrutable  in  heredity. 

It  is  evident  also  that  such  eugenic  self-management  of  mar- 
riages might  be  improved  by  systematic  selection  of  other  traits 
and  excellences  of  temperament,  which  of  itself  would  act  to  ensure 
greater  vitality  in  offspring,  and  hence  prolong  life.  Equally 
evident,  too,  that  as  marriages  of  young  people  come  about  at 
present,  there  is  little  likelihood  of  such  eugenic  procedure  being 
adopted  in  one  in  a  hundred  cases,  A  long  time  will  elapse  before 
"  falling  in  love "  among  young  people  will  be  tempered  by 
reference  to  the  breeding  of  a  healthier  or  longer-lived  race. 

Beyond  doubt  "  falling  in  love  "  has  its  physiological  basis  and 
subserves  certain  ends  for  the  propagation  of  normal  offspring; 
yet  it  is  evident  to  the  merest  tyro  in  such  matters  that  young 
persons  are  constantly  marrying  who  ought  not,  if  the  welfare  of 
the  race  were  to  have  proper  directive  influence. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  201 

It  might  be  noted,  too,  that  the  longer-Hved  the  generations  be- 
came, the  more  slowly  the  increment  in  longevity  would  accrue. 
Also  the  tendency  to  a  slackening  of  procreative  desire  in  the  gen- 
erations which  live  long  and  happily  would  have  to  be  allowed  for ; 
since  it  is  a  well  observed  fact  that  procreation  is  most  rapid  and 
avid  among  those  who  fare  hard,  live  badly  and  have  few  pleas- 
ures save  sexual  gratification.  Logically  and  by  natural  law  pro- 
creation will  cease  when  the  individual  becomes  deathless,  and 
enters  upon  joys  of  a  higher  order  than  sensuous. 

But  judging  from  what  we  know  of  heredity  at  present,  longer- 
lived  individuals  could  be  bred  as  above  contended.  Such  pro- 
longation of  life  may  be  described  as  a  natural  method  for  attain- 
ing longevity,  one  which  might  go  on  with  little  reference  to  future 
discoveries.  It  might,  in  fact,  proceed  with  no  more  reference 
to  such  discoveries  than  is  seen  in  breeding  the  trotting  horse,  or 
improved  strains  of  beef  cattle,  or  of  sheep  for  better  mutton  or 
longer  wool.  Would  it,  like  many  such  breeders'  efforts,  prove 
self-limiting  in  time  and  periodically  revert  to  original  stocks? 
Something  in  the  terrestrial  habitat  and  present  mode  of  nutrition 
appears  in  the  end  to  limit  the  breeding  of  a  better  animal,  where 
the  development  of  brain  and  the  growth  of  knowledge  is  not  the 
principal  factor  invoked. 

For  it  will  be  noted  that  all  such  attempts  to  breed  better  an- 
imals originate  in  and  are  in  reality  dependent  on  the  brain  of 
man.  It  is  human  intelligence  that  does  it;  and  when  that  direct- 
ive intelligence  is  withdrawn,  the  animal  soon  reverts.  If  applied 
to  mankind  instead  of  horses,  it  would  still  be  an  act  of  the  human 
brain. 

Hence  it  is  not  to  the  breeders'  effort,  pure  and  simple,  extending 
through  a  hundred  generations  —  though  this,  too,  may  be  in- 
voked as  adjuvant  —  that  we  are  now  looking  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  immortal  life,  but  to  science  and  discovery,  to  the  evolu- 
tion of  brain  and  the  growth  of  knowledge. 

The  conviction  obtains  that  with  the  accelerated  growth  of 
knowledge  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  rely  wholly  or  in  large  part 
on  "  nature  "  and  heredity.  The  end  we  seek  will  be  attained 
more  rapidly  and  come  sooner,  from  applied  science.  We  shall 
rely  on  nature  only  so  far  as  brain  is  nature ;  —  and  the  human 
brain    is   a  phenomenal   development.      Terrestrial   orders   of   life 


202  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

tend  to  race  stasis,  all  except  man  in  the  particular  of  his  brain. 
It  is  from  the  particular  of  his  marvelous  brain  development  that 
we  predicate  this  next  and  greatest  of  human  achievements. 


TWO  DISCOVERIES  WHICH  WE  NOW  HOPE  FOR 

Two  discoveries,  even  two,  of  those  now  opening  to  view,  both 
well  within  the  proper  province  of  scientific  research,  will,  we  hold, 
when  associated  with  the  co-related  progress  of  science  in  other 
fields,  bring  us  vastly  extended  life  with  promise  of  deathless  hfe 
if  we  desire  it:  — 

First,  improved  nutrition,  looking  to  a  bio-chemically  perfect 
nutrition,  of  the  cell-of-life  in  the  human  body. 

Second,  the  discovery  of  the  intimate  nature  of  brain  cell 
energy,  or  nerve  force,  enabling  us  to  generate  it,  and  apply  it  at 
will  for  restoration  and  maintenance  of  the  cell. 

There  is  generation  of  electricity  by  the  cerebro-spinal  group  of 
cells,  also  production  and  projection,  by  will  power,  of  a  certain 
sublimated,  highly  vitalized  substance  which  is  borne  along  the 
nerve  trunks  by  the  electricity. 

These  two  lines  of  research,  in  co-operation  with  the  psychic 
factor  —  mentioned  later  —  are  the  ones  indicated  from  our  pres- 
ent studies  of  the  subject. 

The  way  to  a  perfected  nutrition  —  the  vehicle  and  means  of 
it  —  lies,  of  course,  through  the  blood  stream,  that  veritable  river 
of  life,  along  the  banks  of  which  the  component  cells  of  the  or- 
ganism are  collocated.  We  have  to  purify,  transform,  and  rectify 
this  sanguineous  stream  of  nutrient  plasma,  bringing  it  to  those 
higher  degrees  of  chemical  efiiciency  where  perfect  assimilation 
takes  place  in  the  cell,  accompanied  there  by  accurate  action  and 
reaction  without  that  waste,  detritus,  or  residues,  which  now  in- 
duce cell  old  age  and  resultant  organic  old  age. 

That  chemism  on  the  earth's  surface  furnishes  such  a  basis  of 
action  and  reaction  —  as  a  foundation  for  scientifically  perfect 
nutrition  —  is  now  well  demonstrated. 

We  have  first  to  consider  and  to  study  what  the  organized  cells 
of  the  human  body  have  done,  co-operatively,  to  produce  in  the 
blood  plasma  a  certain  desired  cell   food  —  produce  it  by  means 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  203 

of  that  marvelous  joint  effort,  seen  in  the  stomach,  liver,  pancreas 
and  intestinal  glands.  And  we  have  then  to  take  up  this  blood 
plasma,  test  it  experimentally  and  improve  it  till  a  perfect  cell 
food  is  obtained. 

Glimpses  and  hints  how  this  chemically  perfect  nutrition  may 
be  attained  through  the  blood  are  of  late  numerous,  from  the 
pathological  side,  and  in  the  guise  of  the  so-called  ferments, 
serums,  opsonins,  vitamines  et  al.  The  merest  hints  as  yet.  None 
the  less,  in  that  quarter,  through  a  transformed  and  rectified 
blood  stream,  breaks  a  new  day  of  great  hopes  for  the  cell-of-life. 

Beyond  much  doubt  at  present  the  ultimate  "  food  "  of  the  pro- 
toplasmic molecule  of  the  cell  consists  of  electrons,  liberated  by 
the  cell  metabolism.  But  the  cell  as  we  now  have  to  deal  with  it, 
in  our  first  efforts  to  render  it  deathless,  is  a  small  organism,  with 
a  digestive  or  metabolic  apparatus  which  we  have  to  reckon  with 
It  seems  probable,  therefore,  that  a  cell  food,  composed  of,  or 
attempered  by,  organic  substances  like  the  "  ferments,"  secreted 
by  the  internal  glands,  may  be  a  desideratum,  for  a  time. 

We  inherit  a  large,  extended  apparatus  for  the  reduction  and 
assimilation  of  such  foodstuffs  as  the  earth  has  offered  us.  That 
apparatus  has  yet  to  pass  through  a  period  of  involution,  graduated 
to  scientifically  improved  food  in  lesser  bulk.  The  inner  cavities 
of  the  organism  are  to  be  cleansed  and  safeguarded  from  the 
hordes  of  noxious  bacteria  which  now  swarm  there.  That  appa- 
ratus of  metabolism  which  we  receive  from  our  ruder  ancestry,  is 
now  ours  to  regulate,  improve  and  transform  to  a  veritable  sanc- 
tuary of  life,  from  which  everything  foul  and  impure  must  be 
excluded. 

But  first  a  skilfully  compounded  cell  food  —  such  as  a  few  years 
of  experimentation  with  the  products  and  ferments  from  the 
glands  of  stimulation  and  regulation  will  afford  —  is  what  we  have 
in  view. 

It  is  these  first  feeble  steps  which  we  are  now  essaying,  these 
first  early  efforts  of  which  the  world  is  now  so  doubtful.  The 
promise  in  them  has  not  yet  unfolded,  but  it  is  there.  The  orient 
halo  of  it  glows  low  on  our  horizon.  If  only  faith,  faith  to  work 
together,  can  be  awakened,  we  who  now  live  may  see  the  glory  of 
its  dawning,  see  the  great,  immortal  universe  expand  ahead,  with- 
out the  black  shadow  of  death  for  us,  personally. 


204  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

In  this  connection,  too,  it  seems  proper  to  say  again  that  it  is 
not  merely  years  added  to  three  score  and  ten  that  we  are  seeking. 
Not  merely  the  control  of  nature,  but  larger,  grander  personal 
life  —  the  apotheosis  of  the  human  soul.  Not  a  "  discarnate  " 
soul,  "  coming  back  "  to  rap  out  inane  messages  at  the  beck  and 
call  of  some  abnormal  "  medium,"  but  progress,  growth  in  knowl- 
edge and  thought. 

The  deathless  life  which  we  seek  to  win  by  science  is  but  the 
first  step  to  a  greater,  grander  life,  for  the  evolution  of  which  the 
present  brief  human  lifetime  no  longer  suffices.  j\Iore  time  for 
growth  in  knowledge  is  needed.  The  brain  of  man,  the  human 
mind,  is  as  yet  but  an  embryo  for  such  potential  growth.  We 
shall  enter  into  this  greater  life  only  when  we  have  more  time  for 
it.     Hence  the  first  step  is  to  achieve  freedom  to  live. 

PRESENT   IMPERFECTIONS   OF   THE    NUTRITIVE 

PROCESSES 

More  practical  considerations  present  themselves  when  the  prob- 
lem of  a  perfected  cell  food  is  examined  in  detail. 

Food  is  what  can  be  converted  within  the  organism  and  brought 
into  condition  fit  to  nourish  the  cell-of-life.  It  therefore  implies 
the  ingestion  not  only  of  nutrient  particles,  but  water  and  air.  An 
improved  nutrition  calls  for  solid  matter,  accurately  proportioned 
to  the  wants  of  the  cell,  clean  water  and  pure  air  —  the  latter 
free  from  floating  dirt  which  mechanically  obstructs  the  pulmonary 
tissue,  and  from  noxious  gases  which  poison  it :  requisites  diffi- 
cult, indeed,  yet  scientifically  possible. 

Much  as  human  food  has  been  improved,  man  still  eats  like  the 
lower  animals,  following  untrained  appetites,  bolting  food  con- 
taminated by  putrefactive  bacteria,  and  often  containing  germs  of 
deadly  diseases  from  which  he  escapes  only  by  intestinal  good 
luck,  or  an  inherited  immunity,  from  ancestral  selection,  through 
hundreds  of  generations  of  kindred  that  perished.  By  means  of 
cookery  he  does  not  swallow  quite  as  much  filth  and  microbic  life 
as  the  ox,  the  horse,  or  the  dog,  but  only  a  degree  less,  and  the 
net  result  inside  him  is  much  the  same,  namely,  putrefaction  and 
accumulations  of  malodorous  waste  so  deleterious,  so  poisonous 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  2O5 

to  lite,  that  the  only  wonder  is  that  he  can  carry  about  within  him 
burdens  so  abominable  and  yet  survive.  For  the  epithelial  lining 
of  the  lower  intestinal  canal  consists  of  millions  of  living  cells  — 
the  divine  cell-of-life  —  and  these  artisans  of  our  personality  have 
all  their  lives  to  live  in  contact  with  this  toxic  burden  of  filth.  It 
is,  indeed,  a  wonderful  instance  of  what  the  cell-of-life  may  be- 
come specialized  and  hardened  to  endure.  Metchnikoff  sought  to 
devise  an  antidotal  dietary  for  internal  putrefaction,  and  even 
suggested  that  a  part  of  the  intestinal  canal  —  the  colon  —  might 
well  be  dispensed  with,  by  excision. 

This  latter  suggestion  has  a  certain  cogency,  yet  it  seems  prob- 
able that  the  better  path  to  internal  lustration  may  come  from 
cleansing  the  internal  cavities  and,  afterwards,  watchfulness  as  to 
what  is  ingested. 

Emulsion,  chylification  and  oxygenation  of  foodstuff  internally 
is  not  of  itself  a  repulsive  process.  Freed  from  ingested  filth  and 
putrefaction,  the  various  steps  of  digestion  and  assimilation  are 
chemically  pure  and  sweet.  The  foulness  and  stench  come  from 
extraneous  causes  which  set  up  chemical  reactions  unnecessary 
and  injurious  to  life.  Curiously  absurd  is  the  opinion  of  certain 
physiologists  that  these  intrusive  bacteria  in  the  lower  bowel  are 
necessary  to  digestion  and  assimilation;  that  nutrition  could  not 
go  on  without  the  adjuvant  agency  of  putrefactive  bacteria :  a 
case  where  an  incidental  and  unfortunate  condition  is  mistaken  for 
a  necessitous  one.  It  may  be  set  down  as  a  general  law,  that  what 
is  revolting  to  the  sense  of  smell,  or  taste,  is  hostile  to  cell  life, 
since  smell  and  taste  are  the  organized  agencies  for  choice  of 
what  is  good  or  bad.  Inured  to  foulness  and  stench  the  cells  of 
the  intestinal  tract  may  have  become,  but  not  because  they  like  it, 
or  because  it  is  good  for  them.  It  is  one  of  the  present  imper- 
fections of  life  in  animal  organisms.  Nor,  we  repeat,  is  there 
anything  necessarily  foul  or  repulsive  in  the  reduction  of  food  to 
a  condition  fit  for  assimilation  and  passage  into  the  blood  plasma. 
The  process  when  normal  is  sweet  and  clean  to  taste  and  smell. 
Indeed,  the  internal  cavity  of  the  human  body  should  be,  and  may 
yet  be  made,  a  very  penetralia  of  life,  the  sanctuary  of  a  holy 
purity.  It  may  be  well  to  keep  in  mind  that  cell  nutrition  prob- 
ably implies  a  replenishment  of  electrons.  By  virtue  of  the  proc- 
esses of  metabolism,   electrons   are   apparently  derived    from   the 


206  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

blood  plasma  and  go  to  restore  the  cell  substance.  Esoteric  proc- 
esses go  on  within  the  cell  which  draw  in  electrons,  liberated  from 
the  breakdown  of  food  substances,  and  distribute  them  for  the 
renewal  of  the  component  atoms  and  molecules.  All  of  which  is 
accomplished  under  nature  in  the  animal  organism  at  present  with 
errata  of  excess  or  failure,  a  per  cent,  of  deficit  and  damage  con- 
stantly accumulating  through  the  period  known  to  us  as  the  indi- 
vidual lifetime.  It  is  a  perfected  nutrition  of  the  cell-of-life 
throughout  the  organism  which  biological  science  has  now  in  view. 
Upon  such  perfected  nutrition  rests  the  hope  of  deathless  life. 

Reverting  to  the  solid  constituents  of  food,  even  when  these,  as 
a  result  of  laboratory  selection,  have  been  skilfully  composed, 
rendered  palatable  and  put  in  form  for  ingestion,  they  must  at 
present  be  subjected  to  the  organic  routine  of  preparation  for 
assimilation :  the  routine  which  we  inherit.  Our  food  must  still 
be  acted  on  by  the  saliva  and  gastric  juices,  mingled  with  bile  from 
the  liver,  with  the  pancreatic  ferments,  and  juices  from  the  many 
intestinal  glands.  It  must  be  admixed  with  the  secretions  of  the 
lymphatic  system,  and  after  absorption,  must  still  further  be  oxy- 
genated in  the  lungs,  and  metamorphosed  by  the  secretions  of  the 
ductless  glands,  and  by  the  activities  of  the  abundant  cell  life 
resident  and  natatory  in  the  sanguineous  circulation.  All  of  which 
juices,  ferments  and  cell  activities  are  adapted  and  graduated  to 
food  as  at  present  ingested,  with  all  its  crudity,  contaminations, 
and  disproportion  to  the  actual  wants  of  the  cell-of-life. 

At  first  and  at  best  this  will  be  like  giving  a  fine  job  to  a  rude 
artisan,  or  a  coarse  machine ;  but  it  is  the  only  course  open  to  us ; 
and  imperfect  as  is  the  apparatus  at  present,  we  need  not  lose  sight 
of  the  fact  that  it  is  one  having  in  itself  the  faculty  and  the  power 
of  renovation  and  readaptation.  It  is  what  we  find  it  by  reason 
of  the  imperfect  food  with  which  it  has  had  to  deal;  and  by  that 
same  token  and  that  same  adaptive  power,  it  will  readapt  itself  to 
new  and  better  food.  We  need  not  lose  faith  in  the  cell-of-life  to 
do,  and  to  be,  what  the  organism  requires. 

The  food  of  the  future,  compounded  in  centrally  located  food 
laboratories  —  instead  of  the  millions  of  household  kitchens  with 
their  imperfections  of  dirt  and  microbic  infection  —  will  be  a 
masterwork  of  organic  chemistry,  perhaps  in  tabloid  form,  most 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  207 

probably  in  portions  of  various  sizes,  enclosed  in  sealed  glass  jars. 
It  will  contain  the  carbo-hydrates  and  the  nitrogenous  constitu- 
ents necessary  to  the  nutrition  of  the  cell,  attempered  by  those 
ferments  which  promote  assimilation  and  stimulate  cell  life. 

This  perfected  food  will  be  ingested  in  such  a  state  of  chem- 
ical instability  as  to  relieve  in  large  part  the  present  hard  work 
of  digestion,  with  its  vast  absorption  of  vital  energy.  It  will  be 
far  less  in  quantity  and  tend  greatly  to  reduce  the  size  of  the  in- 
ternal cavity,  and  also  obviate  accidents  of  gas,  mechanical  ob- 
struction, and  decomposing  waste.  It  will  make  possible  the  elim- 
ination of  most  or  all  of  the  morbific  bacteria  with  which  the 
lower  portions  of  the  alimentary  canal  now  swarm.  It  will  be 
attended  by  a  gradual  involution  of  the  present  internal  organs  — 
stomach,  liver  et  al.  and  their  functions  —  not  only  reduction  in 
size,  but  changes  in  the  quality  of  their  products  and  the  mutual 
activities  and  combinations  of  these  products,  all  tending  to  a  less 
exigent,  more  accurate  metabolism.  Certain  gland  tissues  may 
even  become  desuete,  because  in  the  newer,  better  organic  economy, 
they  will  not  be  needed. 


DESUETE  ORGANS   NOT  NECESSARILY  DANGEROUS 

This  will  infallibly  raise  the  old  question  of  danger  from 
desuete  organs,  on  the  supposition,  once  prevalent,  that  they  be- 
come a  nidus  for  disease  and  foster  malignant  growths.  Physicians 
at  one  time  inclined  to  this  opinion.  Longer  observation,  however, 
has  led  to  the  conclusion  that  desuete  tissues  are  no  more  liable, 
not  quite  as  liable,  indeed,  to  disease,  as  the  tissues  of  normally 
active  organs,  the  vermiform  appendix  being  an  apparent  ex- 
ception solely  from  its  situation.  Due  to  its  position  it  is  liable  to 
become  a  receptacle  for  poisonous  waste. 

The  economic  saving,  due  to  use  of  food  requiring  fifty  per 
cent,  less  expenditure  of  the  vital  energy  for  its  reduction  and  di- 
gestion, will  result  not  only  in  an  access  of  physical  comfort,  but 
an  access  of  power  for  greater  mental  efficiency;  since  not  much 
under  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  entire  potential  energy  of  the  body 
is  now  expended  on  food-reduction  before  it  can  go  to  the  cells 
for  their  renewal.    In  many  organisms,  especially  aged  organisms, 


208  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

the  whole  potential  energy  barely  suffices  for  the  reduction  of 
food  and  passing  it  through  into  the  blood  plasma  in  a  state  fit 
to  go  to  the  cell-of-life.  Deaths  from  old  age,  in  fact,  and  in 
certain  forms  of  disease  result  from  further  inability  to  reduce 
and  assimilate  food. 

I  A  saving  of  one-half  the  vital  energy,  expended  on  food,  will 
render  the  bodily  health  more  stable,  adding  greatly  to  personal 
well-being  and  happiness. 


EXPERIMENTS   WITH   CONDENSED   FOODS 

Experiments  in  food  rations,  variously  condensed,  concentrated 
and  compounded  as  to  constituents,  have  proved  unsatisfactory 
thus  far.  Trial  of  such  foods,  usually  in  tabloid  form,  has  been 
made  in  the  English,  German  and  other  Continental  armies,  also 
on  one  or  two  occasions  in  the  American  army  and  navy;  always 
unsatisfactory  and  generally  disliked  by  the  soldier,  or  sailor,  for 
reasons  which  are  immediately  apparent  as  soon  as  the  circum- 
stances are  investigated. 

Beyond  doubt  —  even  in  cases  where  the  person  making  the 
trial  was  in  sympathy  w^ith  it,  a  month,  perhaps  two  or  three 
months,  would  be  necessary  to  bring  the  stomach  and  entire  di- 
gestive apparatus  into  condition  to  act  to  advantage  on  the  new, 
less  bulky  food.  Undoubtedly  the  person  making  the  change 
would  suffer  discomfort  and  feel  that  his  hunger  was  unappeased. 
The  period  of  transition  would  be  marked  by  contraction  which, 
if  made  suddenly,  would  be  painful  or  at  least  uncomfortable,  A 
stomach  and  intestinal  canal  accustomed  to  a  certain  bulk  of  food, 
four  or  five  pounds  daily,  let  us  suppose,  would  no  doubt  feel 
painfully  empty  for  a  time  on  thirteen  ounces  of  concentrated  food, 
and  even  fail  to  get  in  proper  attitude  to  act  on  it.  Accustomed 
to  drinking  a  large  quantity  of  liquids,  too.  the  gland  secretions 
would  be  dilute  and  insufficient  for  concentrated  foods.  In  short, 
the  reasons  why  concentrated  rations  have  been  pronounced  a 
failure  are  evident  enough  to  one  possessing  even  a  rudimentary 
knowledge  of  the  animal  organism,  and  do  not  conflict  with  the 
principle  involved,  nor  discount  the  purpose  of  such  modes  of 
nutrition.     It  is  simply  that  the  person  making  the  transition  was 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  209 

not  in  shape  or  condition  to  do  it,  owing  to  a  previous  cumber- 
some method  of  obtaining  his  nourishment;  he  needed  to  be  gotten 
in  form  and  condition  for  it ;  no  easy  matter  after  years  of  ex- 
cessive distention.  Beyond  doubt  the  process  should  be  gradual, 
beginning  with  small  quantities  of  the  new  food,  combined  with 
the  old,  the  process  of  adaptation  continuing  through  a  considerable 
period  of  time. 

And  of  course  it  would  be  of  great  advantage  if  the  neophyte 
was  in  full  sympathy  with  the  effort,  and  intelligent  enough  to 
understand  its  purport  and  the  personal  advantages  coming  to  him 
from  success  in  it;  —  instead  of  ignorance,  prejudice  and  sus- 
picion that  it  was  some  new-fangled  concoction,  gotten  up  to  de- 
fraud him,  and  cheat  him  out  of  his  proper  food,  for  the  benefit 
of  his  superiors.  Little  could  be  expected  from  experimentation 
on  ignorant  subjects. 

Add  to  this  the  rather  unattractive  form  in  which  concentrated 
rations  were  prepared,  also  the  generally  unpalatable  flavor  which 
they  carried,  and  the  reasons  for  their  unpopularity  with  the 
soldier  and  sailor  are  apparent. 

In  fact  the  use  of  a  perfected  food,  designed  permanently  to 
reduce  the  size  of  the  intestinal  cavity  and  relieve  the  hard  labor 
of  present  nutrition,  has  never  yet  been  attempted.  It  remains  for 
investigation  and  experiment  at  a  laboratory  of  co-operative 
workers. 

In  the  matter  of  liquids,  a  sufficient  quantity  must  needs  be 
taken  to  ensure  that  normal  fluidity  which  the  organic  functions 
require  for  procedure  —  no  more.  The  human  body  at  its  best 
estate  is  not  an  organism  which  has  need  of  profuse  sudation. 
Great  eaters  and  drinkers  have  need  to  sweat  profusely  to  get  rid 
of  the  results  of  excessive  metabolism.  The  healthiest  persons 
the  present  writer  has  known,  have  perspired  little.  Where  there 
is  great  oxydation  and  hence  great  suffering  in  warm  weather 
from  heat,  due  largely  to  eating  more  than  the  organism  requires, 
there  is  of  course  necessity  for  much  water  to  facilitate  elimina- 
tion of  waste  products  through  the  pores  of  the  skin;  since  there 
is  more  waste  than  the  internal  emunctories  can  remove.  It  is  well 
always  to  "  keep  the  pores  open."  But  the  idea  that  a  person 
ought  of  necessity  to  perspire  a  great  deal  is  erroneous.  Such 
perspiration  is  pathologic  rather  than  hygienic,  or  normal.     What 


210  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

we  term  "  insensible  perspiration  "  is  quite  sufficient  for  a  person 
who  does  not  overeat;  nor  is  any  good  end  attained  by  constant 
"  flushing  of  the  kidneys  "  by  deluges  of  water.  It  is  understood, 
of  course,  that  we  are  not  here  speaking  of  a  remedial  use  of 
perspiration  in  case  of  sudden  "  colds  "  which  may,  if  neglected, 
induce  pneumonia  or  intestinal  disorders.  Promoting  a  profuse 
perspiration  and  doing  so  immediately  is  then  a  sovereign  remedy 
—  the  most  efficacious  of  all  remedies. 

Presumably  many  different  kinds  and  varieties  of  the  improved 
foods,  solid  and  liquid,  will  be  devised,  as  time  passes,  graduated 
to  the  requirements  of  individual  organisms  with  considerable 
exactitude.  Sufficient  data  for  beginning  the  preparation  of  pure 
foods  are  already  in  possession  of  physiologists.  It  would  re- 
main to  compound  the  necessary  constituents  in  available  form, 
and  in  such  a  condition  of  instability  as  to  avoid  present  violent 
chemical  reactions  in  the  alimentary  canal,  attended  by  excessive 
generation  of  gases,  and  exigent  peristalsis.  A  very  few  years  of 
experimental  work  would  suffice  to  inaugurate  this  effort.  Im- 
proved foods,  however,  are  no  more  a  desideratum  than  the  eating 
of  them.  We  still  ingest  food,  in  response  to  appetites  v/hich  are 
often  no  better  than  the  established  habits  of  long  misfeeding. 
Nor  is  there  now  the  least  doubt  that  "  appetite  "  for  certain  kinds 
of  food,  often  in  excess,  is  transmitted  from  parent  to  offspring, 
not  unlike  the  craving  for  intoxicants  and  narcotics.  Man,  indeed, 
is  still  so  much  an  animal  that  he  eats  for  the  gratification  of  his 
mouth  and  stomach,  regardless  of  reason  or  common  sense.  But 
he  who  would  pass  from  death  unto  life  niiist  eat  with  his  brain, 
rather  than  his  belly-greed.  Literally  he  must  eat  to  live,  instead 
of  living  to  eat.  But  this  regimen,  this  higher  sentiment  of 
nutrition,  will  come  naturally  and  of  itself  with  the  hope  of  im- 
mortal life.  Belly-greed,  like  sex-lust,  will  fade  out  as  the  sense 
of  deathlessness  grows.  Nor  is  there  reasonable  doubt  that  the 
human  organism  will  safely  adapt  itself  to  the  new,  improved 
modes  of  nutrition,  though  of  course  an  infant  will  do  so  more 
readily  than  an  adult,  or  an  aged  person. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  211 

THE  OFFICE  AND  FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  ENDOCRINE 

GLANDS 

Closely  connected  with  this  subject  of  perfected  nutrition  and 
a  chemically  accurate  cell  food  is  an  important  line  of  experiments, 
through  the  blood  circulatory,  having  for  its  object  to  rectify, 
fortify  and  give  tonicity  to  the  tissue  cells,  by  use  of  the  products 
of  certain  glands  of  the  animal  organism,  or  by  reagents  artifi- 
cially produced  of  the  nature  of  those  gland  products,  or  by 
"  serums  "  from  the  blood  of  animals  which  have  been  thus  forti- 
fied and  rectified. 

We  have  always  to  keep  before  us  the  mental  picture  that  it  is 
by  virtue  of  the  nicely-adjusted  and  nicely-balanced  action  and 
interaction  of  every  gland  and  every  organ  of  the  body,  that  the 
present  vital  tonicity  of  the  cells  is  preserved  and  their  food  pro- 
duced for  them  in  the  blood  plasma.  If  one  or  any  of  these 
glands  or  organs  falls  out  of  normal  function,  the  cell  life  suffers: 
a  condition  frequent  in  aging  organisms.  We  have  then  to  attune 
the  organism  to  the  note  or  key  of  adolescence  by  scientific  pro- 
cedure. 

There  are,  as  is  now  well  understood,  thirty  or  more  internal 
glands,  sometimes  called  ductless  glands  or  endocrine  glands, 
variously  located  in  the  organism,  the  office  of  which  is  to  secrete 
substances  which  are  absorbed  directly  into  the  blood  stream  and 
serve  to  stimulate,  or  retard,  the  activity  of  the  cells  in  certain 
organs  of  the  body.  The  secretions  from  these  glands  have  been 
classed  as  hormones  when  they  incite  cell  activity  and  chalones 
when  they  retard  it  —  terms  devised  from  Greek  words  signify- 
ing to  quicken,  or  to  retard.  These  secretions  appear  to  have 
chemical  affinities  for  the  cells  of  dift'erent  organs,  or  from  an- 
other point  of  view,  to  be  under  the  guiding  control  of  the  sub- 
conscious life  of  the  organism  as  a  whole  —  secretions  called  into 
existence  by  its  wants  and  necessities.  These  substances  give  rise 
to  antibodies,  so  called,  in  the  blood  stream,  which  act  and  react 
on  the  life  and  products  of  the  tissue  cells. 

Among  the  internal  glands  thus  far  studied,  are  the  suprarenals, 
thyroids,  parathyroids,  thymus,  pituitary  body,  pineal  gland,  pan- 
creatic   glands    (Islands    of    Langerhans),    not    to    mention    the 


212  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

ovaries,  testes,  parotids  et  al.,  not  ductless,  nor  the  multitude  of 
intestinal  glands.  The  organism,  in  fact,  has  within  it  a  con- 
geries of  gland  tissue  the  secretions  from  which  appear  not  only 
to  incite  and  inhibit  cell  activity,  but  to  interact  and  modify  each 
other  in  the  blood  stream;  —  that  river  of  life,  like  some  great 
national  river,  where  everything  swims :  nutrient  particles,  en- 
zymes, hormones,  chalones,  cell  semina,  disease  germs,  pathologic 
particles,  waste  particles  as  of  urea,  carbonic  acid  gas,  etc.,  which 
every  breath  oxidates,  every  indiscretion  befouls. 

Of  the  physico-chemical  substances  which  the  internal  glands 
secrete,  some  affect  the  growth  of  the  organism  as  a  whole,  others 
certain  parts  or  organs  only,  giving  rise  to  deformities.  Certain 
of  them  arrest  growth  altogether  and  delay  functional  develop- 
ment. For  example,  derangement  or  injury  to  the  pituitary 
gland  beneath  the  brain  may  result  in  dwarfish  stature  and  a  gen- 
eral retardation  of  normal  growth.  On  the  other  hand  excessive 
secretion  from  this  gland  results  in  giantism,  excessive  growth  of 
bone,  muscle  and  adipose,  with  profound  changes  in  physiognomy 
and  even  in  personal  character.  As  to  what  might  be  accomplished 
by  experimentation  with  the  pituitary  gland  or  the  thyroids,  the 
inference  is  plain.  Very  suggestive,  very  potent  agencies  are  here 
within  our  grasp. 

Nor  are  these  agencies  confined  wholly  to  the  strictly  ductless 
glands.  Certain  of  the  duct  glands  emit  secretions  other  than 
those  with  which  we  are  most  familiar.  Apparently  the  spleen, 
the  pancreas  and  even  the  liver  have  their  secondary  or  adjuvant 
secretions,  as  also  the  ovaries  and  testicles.  The  secondary  inci- 
tants  to  development  which  come  from  these  latter  glands,  at  a 
certain  age.  has  long  been  a  matter  of  observation.  Corroborative 
evidence  as  to  this  has  been  furnished  by  experiments  with  capons 
in  which  the  testicles  of  young  cocks  were  transplanted,  resulting 
in  a  re-development  of  comb,  crowing,  pugnacity  and  salaciousness. 
Nor  has  it  been  found  essential  that  the  transplantation  of  these 
gland  cells  shall  be  made  within  the  pelvis,  since  much  the  same 
effect  on  the  organism  as  a  whole  is  produced,  when  such  cells  are 
engrafted  in  other  parts  of  the  body!  It  is  not  the  purpose  here, 
however,  to  enumerate  the  many  interesting  experiments  which 
have  led  to  the  conclusions  above  recorded. 

In  that  general  decline  of  the  component  cell  life  which  we  call 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  2I3 

old  age,  the  cells  of  the  internal  glands  gradually  grow  inactive, 
torpid,  or  die,  with  the  result  that  a  lessened,  altered  or  pathologic 
product  takes  the  place  of  the  normal  one,  and  the  entirety  of  cell 
life  sufifers  from  lack  of  its  former  regulative  stimulus.  It  is  just 
at  this  point  where  decline  and  degeneration  begin,  that  our  line  of 
research  aims  to  arrest  old  age,  by  supplying  to  the  blood  the 
equivalents  of  these  earlier  secretions.  It  is  here  that  rejuvenation 
must  start.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that  every  cell  of  the  body 
can  be  thus  rejuvenated  if  we  can  get  to  act  on  that  cell  with  the 
proper  reagents  in  the  blood  stream.  It  is  a  weakened,  deteri- 
orated blood  stream,  often  vitiated  to  a  poisonous  degree,  which 
induces  cell  old  age. 


SUGGESTED   METHODS   OF    PROCEDURE 

As  regards  methods  of  attempering  an  improved  food,  with  the 
secretions  of  the  internal  glands  or  their  chemical  equivalents,  in 
order  to  secure  invigorating  effects  from  them  upon  the  cells, 
many  expedients  suggest  themselves.  The  object,  as  must  be  kept 
clearly  in  mind,  is  to  introduce  into  the  blood  stream  which  is 
rapidly  propelled  to  all  the  cells,  that  high  grade  nutrition  which 
in  healthy  youth  is  secured  from  chyle,  avidly  digested  and  com- 
mingled with  secretions  from  all  the  adjuvant  glands.  Adolescent 
nutrition  sometimes  presents  a  picture  of  what  we  hope  to  secure 
for  the  cells  of  all  the  tissues  even  in  advanced  age.  We  are  here 
following  nature's  paradigm,  perfected  during  a  million  years. 
We  hope  to  reduplicate  the  best  results  nature  has  attained. 
Hitherto  old  age  has  been  regarded  as  a  law  of  nature.  I  have 
shown  that  it  is  not  a  law,  but  a  sequence,  incidental  to  the  imper- 
fections of  life  as  we  at  present  live,  and  hence  a  condition  to  be 
improved  and  remedied  by  the  growth  of  knowledge. 

What  we  have  learned  of  the  effects  of  engrafted  cells  naturally 
suggests  implantations  of  gland  tissue,  but  this  implies  surgical 
operations  not  to  be  lightly  undertaken  at  present.  Inoculation 
appears  more  practicable.  Endosmosis  of  fluid  ferments  to  the 
blood  stream,  facilitated  by  currents  of  electricity,  has  also  been 
advocated.  Certain  experiments,  too,  have  led  to  the  conclusion 
that  if  the  organism  is  put  in  urgent  want  of  fluids  and  nouiish- 


214  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

ment,  the  pores  will  substitute  as  absorbents,  retroactively.  Dosage 
by  the  stomach  and  alimentary  canal  is  always  open  to  the  objec- 
tion that  gland  products,  thus  ingested,  may  be  altered  or  neutral- 
ized by  the  gastric  and  other  "  juices  "  of  digestion. 

It  is  along  these  lines  of  research  and  experiment  that  a  num- 
ber of  years'  work  now  needs  to  be  done,  by  fifteen  or  twenty 
physiologists,  working  in  co-operation :  the  enterprise  which  the 
present  author  has  had  in  view  since  1887. 

Science,  our  future  science,  may  devise  a  better  mode  of  nutri- 
tion for  the  cell-of-life  than  nature  has  yet  attained  in  young 
organisms;  but  at  present  nature's  method,  through  the  blood 
plasma,  is  the  best  we  know,  and  hence  the  one  to  be  pursued  — 
until  bio-chemistry  has  made  further  discoveries.  In  the  case 
therefore  of  adult  or  enfeebled  persons,  the  present  plan  would 
be  to  recover  lost  ground  by  use  of  the  secretions  of  the  internal 
glands,  or  their  chemical  equivalents,  blended  as  in  healthy  youth; 

—  and  so  work  back  to  the  competent  cell  metabolism,  seen  in 
young  persons. 

There  is  under  observation  here  at  present  an  adolescent,  aged 
twelve,  in  whom  cell  nutrition  appears  well-nigh  perfect;  also  two 
young  animals.  The  secretions  from  the  internal  glands  are 
manifestly  normal  and  blend  harmoniously  to  actuate  cell  growth 
and  development  to  the  type  limits.     The  overflow  of  cell  growth 

—  heredity-chromatin  —  resulting  from  type  limits  being  reached, 
begins  already  to  be  regulated  and  given  direction  by  the  glands 
of  reproduction.  If  anything  like  the  health  and  vigor  of  the 
examples  cited,  can  be  reduplicated  in  adult  or  aging  organisms, 
a  long  step  will  have  been  taken  in  our  quest. 

It  is  also  worth  remarking  here  that  the  renewed  health  and 
vigor  which  it  is  hoped  may  be  thus  reduplicated,  will  prove 
remedial  and  curative  for  most  of  those  diseases  which  appear  as 
middle  age  is  reached.  Renewed  vigor  is  nature's  cure  for  most  of 
the  ills  of  life.  People  ''  get  well,"  if  nature  can  be  rallied  to 
make  a  fresh  start. 

It  is  here,  again,  that  experimentation  should  be  begun  and 
continued  patiently  in  animal  subjects  for  several  years.  New 
great  discoveries,  suddenly  made,  may  enable  us  to  supersede 
nature's  methods,  even  as,  in  locomotion,  steam  and  electricity  have 
superseded  the  plodding  foot  of  the  vertebrate.     Nothing  is  risked 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  21 5 

in  making  the  prediction  that  ere  many  years,  the  nutrition  and 
maintenance  of  the  cell-of-life  will  come  completely  within  control 
of  applied  science;  and  even  that  in  place  of  parturition  as  it  is 
at  present  accomplished  under  nature,  with  pain  and  risk  to  life, 
the  human  heredity-germ  will  be  incubated  outside  the  mother's 
body;  and  that  the  whole  wonderful  process  of  embryonic  and 
foetal  growth  may  be  watched  day  by  day  under  glass.  Nature 
is  to  be  imitated  only  so  far  as  we  have  not  learned  to  improve  on 
her  methods.  Nature  is  by  no  means  infallible,  nor  yet  to  be 
blindly  venerated. 

The  secretions  of  the  internal  glands  have  been  subjects  of  study 
and  speculation  since  the  days  of  Brown-Sequard,  and  before. 
The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  obtaining  them  continuously  and 
normally  from  living  animals  are  not  yet  surmounted.  Extracts 
made  of  these  glands,  excised  from  animals,  are  not  satisfactory. 
Synthetic  production  of  the  bio-chemical  equivalents  of  the  secre- 
tions is  the  indicated  solution  of  the  problem;  and  it  is  a  matter 
for  regret  that  research  in  this  line  cannot  be  initiated  at  once. 

Complicated  as  is  the  problem  of  perfecting  cell  nutrition,  it 
yet  presents  no  new  factors,  and  calls  only  for  intelligent  experi- 
mentation along  lines  already  indicated.  Were  the  work  under- 
taken by  a  group  of  trained  observers,  having  this  end  clearly  in 
view,  a  very  few  years  would  suffice  to  bring  out  the  data  for  it. 
No  insuperable  obstacle  confronts  us.  All  depends  on  going  about 
it  with  a  formed  purpose  and  an  ambition  to  do  it.  What  we  have 
ever  to  bear  in  mind,  however,  is  the  fact  that  the  best  food  now 
obtainable  —  considered  as  food  merely  —  would  prove  but  a  use- 
less factor  in  our  quest,  if  the  organism  into  which  it  is  introduced 
does  not  lay  hold  of  it  and  assimilate  it.  If  the  ingesting  organism 
does  not  properly  act,  that  best  of  foods  might  prove  but  injurious, 
or  even  poisonous.  The  constituent  cell  life  of  ai%  organism  senes- 
cent or  enfeebled  by  disease,  must  be  reclaimed  and  reinvigorated. 

How  far  and  to  what  extent  the  use  of  secretions  from  the 
endocrine  glands,  or  their  chemical  equivalents,  may  enable  us  to 
accomplish  this  necessary  reinvigoration  and  maintenance  of  the 
cell  life  in  adult  organisms,  has  not  as  yet  been  demonstrated  by 
actual  experiment.  Something,  much  we  hope,  can  be  done,  by 
attempering  nutrition  with  such  reagents. 

The   problem   in   rejuvenescence   which   presents   greatest   diffi- 


2l6  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

culties  is  the  renewal  of  the  cell  life  in  the  shrunken  tissues  of 
aging  organisms,  meaning  the  re-population  of  tissues  with  cells 
in  cases  where  the  original  endowment  from  the  embryo  has  died 
out  entirely,  leaving  only  lifeless  formed  matter,  as  in  old  bone  and 
tendon,  or  where  the  cells  have  shrunken  to  encysted  nuclei  which 
are  wholly  desuete  or  torpid,  not  wholly  unlike  certain  small, 
hibernating  animals  in  their  winter  burrows. 

It  has  been  found  that  certain  ferments  from  secretions  of  the 
internal  glands  stimulate  nature  in  instigating  new  proliferations 
of  old  cells.  Latterly,  too,  examinations  of  old  tissue,  made  at 
this  laboratory,  indicate  that  encysted,  dormant  nuclei  of  the 
formerly  active  cells,  exist  in  nearly  all  such  senescent  tissues 
and  in  far  greater  numbers  than  was  at  first  supposed.  These 
desuete  nuclei  of  cells  seem  indeed  very  loath  to  become  vitally 
extinct,  perhaps  never  do  so  wholly  as  long  as  the  tissue  con- 
tinues actually  alive,  within  the  cordon  of  the  sanguineous  cir- 
culation, and  under  the  intluence  of  what  has  been  previously  de- 
scribed as  the  aura  of  the  neuro-electronic  circulation.  Beyond 
doubt,  too,  these  nuclei  may  be  reinvigorated,  and  made  to  take  on 
cytoplasm  again,  as  long  as  they  remain  alive  —  like  certain  tor- 
pid micro-organisms  in  pools  which  have  dried  up. 


DR.  SERGE  VORONOFF'S  EXPERIMENTS 

One  of  the  more  recent  attempts  to  combat  old-aging  by  im- 
plantations of  glands  from  young  animals  of  the  same  species  — 
following  the  line  of  research  first  attempted  by  Brown-Sequard  — 
has  been  made  by  Dr.  Serge  Voronoff  of  the  French  College  of 
Surgery.  Dr.  \^oronoff's  experiments  were  made  with  sheep  — 
old  and  young  rams  —  also  senile  men  in  whom  glands  from 
monkeys  were  implanted  as  grafts.  Certain  of  these  experiments 
were  thus  described  in  a  Paris  journal :  — 

"  M.  Voronoff  a  pratique  120  experiences  sur  des  chevres  et  des 
boucs  normaux  et  chatres.  Le  but  de  ces  experiences  etait  de  voir 
si  la  grefife  pent  fournir  une  secretion  endocrine.  Les  examens 
histologiques  ont  ete  faits  par  M.  Retterer.  Les  greffes  etaient 
representees   soit   par  un   testicule   entier    (25    fois),    soit   par   un 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  21/ 

gros  morceau  de  la  glande  (58  fois),  soit  par  im  petit  morceau 
{T^y  fois).  Elles  ont  ete  placees  tantot  sous  la  peau  (32  fois), 
tantot  dans  les  bourses  (85  fois),  tantot  sous  la  peritoine  {2t^ 
fois).  D'une  fagon  generale  les  parties  peripheriques  de  la  greffe 
survivent,  les  parties  centrales  degenerent.  Les  fragments  de  la 
glande  se  greffent  mieux  que  la  glande  entiere,  et  au  point  de  vue 
physiologique  les  effets  sont  les  memes.  Quant  au  siege,  c'est  dans 
les  bourses  que  la  greffe  a  le  plus  de  chances  de  reussir.  Le 
testicule  greffe  sur  les  femelles  ne  semble  avoir  aucun  eff'et  si  ce 
n'est  un  arret  du  developpement  des  os  longs.  Par  contre  I'action 
est  des  plus  nettes  sur  les  males  chatres  et  sur  les  vieux  males.  En 
particulier  une  experience  sur  un  vieux  male  epuise  a  donne  des 
resultats  suivants :  quatre  fragments  de  testicule  ayant  ete  greffes 
dans  la  vaginale  au-dessus  du  testicule  normal,  I'animal  se  trans- 
forma  rapidement.  Deux  mois  apres  la  greffe,  il  put  saillir  une 
chevre  et  la  feconder.  La  greft'e  ayant  ete  enlevee,  I'animal 
vieillit  a  nouveau,  et  une  nouvelle  greft'e  reussit  comme  la  pre- 
miere et  eut  les  memes  effets," 

It  is  not  difficult  to  predict  that  gland  grafts,  as  described 
in  Dr.  Voronoff's  experiments,  will  not  permanently  renew  the 
youthful  estate.  None  the  less  certain  well-marked  results  have 
attended  them.  Yet  all  such  efforts  are  still  in  their  first  crude 
stage.  It  need  not  surprise  us,  nor  dishearten  us,  if  no  complete, 
permanent  results  in  the  way  of  rejuvenation  have  yet  been  at- 
tained ;  nor  that  ribald  criticism  has  followed,  from  certain  sources. 
The  effort  is  in  its  infancy  as  yet;  better,  improved  methods  are 
sure  to  follow.  Consider  how  aviation  stood  twenty  years  ago: 
the  feeble,  first  efforts  to  fly  and  the  public  ridicule  that  attended 
them.  These  efforts  at  rejuvenation  are  full  of  promise.  They 
will  erelong  prove  gloriously  successful. 

It  is  the  actual  chemical  nature  and  composition  of  these  gland 
secretions  which  we  now  have  need  to  study  and  analyze,  with  a 
view  to  their  synthetic  production,  or  practical  derivation,  prior 
to  introduction  in  the  sanguineous  circulation.  Ultimately  such 
introduction  may  be  accomplished  by  means  of  admixtures  with 
the  daily  food.  Even  a  decade  of  systematized  study  and  experi- 
mentation along  these  lines,  with  this  end  clearly  in  view,  would 
set  us  far  on  the  way  to  renovation  of  the  somatic  cell  life. 


2l8  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

NERVOUS  ENERGY;  ITS  COMPOSITE  NATURE 

The  other  Hue  of  research  —  previously  specified  —  concerns 
itself  with  that  aura,  or  "  field,''  of  nervous  energy  to  which  allu- 
sion has  more  than  once  been  made,  as  the  neuro-electronic  cir- 
culation. 

This  term  may  pro\-e  inapt  when  we  ha\-e  learned  more  as  to 
what  this  emanation  from  the  cells  of  the  brain  and  spinal  cord 
actually  is.  At  present  we  know  that  currents  emanate  from  the 
cells  of  the  cerebro-spinal  system,  currents  which  control,  actuate 
and  maintain,  functionally,  the  outlying  tissue  cells  of  the  entire 
animal  organism.  In  analysis  of  this  emanation  we  have  pro- 
ceeded far  enough  to  learn  that  it  consists  of  electrons  plus  a  more 
ethereal  efflux  from  the  brain  and  nerve  cells;  that  this  efflux 
exhausts  those  cells  to  the  extent  of  rendering  periods  of  rest  and 
recuperation  frequently  necessary;  and  also  that  a  marked  pro- 
vision has  been  made  in  all  animal  organisms  to  insulate  the 
emanation  and  prevent  it  from  wastage. 

Much  farther  we  have  not  gone  at  present  writing,  but  deem 
further  experimentation  exceedingly  desirable. 

We  wish  to  know  the  nature  of  this  emanant  current  and  learn 
whether  it,  or  its  equivalent,  can  be  generated  bio-chemically,  or 
obtained  in  large  measure  from  lower  animal  life  —  obtained  for 
remedial  action  on  the  human  organism. 

What  is  meant  and  sought  for  may  require  fuller  definition. 

At  the  outset  it  may  be  set  down  as  a  general  principle  that  what 
induces  life  in  the  cell  —  that  attribute  of  energy  which  comes 
to  us  from  the  sun  and  gives  rise  to  life  in  terrestrial  matter  —  is 
what  we  have  need  to  isolate  and  utilize  for  the  renovation  of 
human  life  when  the  organism  grows  senescent.  In  a  word,  what 
causes  life  needs  to  be  used  to  renew  and  ensure  life.  Once 
this  source,  this  form  or  mode  of  energy,  were  mastered  and 
brought  under  control,  all  the  frailties  and  imperfections  which 
appear,  as  secondary  results,  in  the  larger  metazoic  organisms, 
might  be  made  to  disappear,  as  when  the  light  of  a  smoky  lamp 
is  rendered  star-like  by  a  better  burner,  giving  perfect  combus- 
tion. 

If   Professor  Jacques   Loeb   is  correct   in  his   deduction,   everv 


HOW   IT   WILL   BE   ACHIEVED  219 

human  being-  differs  "chemically"  from  every  other;  and  human 
beings,  as  a  species,  even  more  markedly  from  the  lower  verte- 
brates; yet  the  metabolism  and  products  of  the  cell-of-life  in  man 
are  so  similar  to  that  of  the  dog,  the  horse  and  ox,  that  it  appears 
not  impossible  that  the  neuro-electronic  circulation  of  groups  of 
healthy  young  animals  may  be  drawn  on,  periodically,  for  the  rein- 
forcement of  the  cerebro-spinal  cells  of  man. 

Ultimately  the  more  desirable  method  of  such  reinforcement 
would  be,  of  course,  reinvigoration  of  the  brain  cells,  directly, 
by  that  property  or  mode  of  the  solar  energy  which  causes  life. 
But  owing  to  the  great  depth  in  particulate  matter  at  which  the 
sentient  property  of  energy  inaugurates  life  in  the  cell,  the  pro- 
fundities of  organic  chemistry  are  not  easily  sounded;  and  resort 
may  have  to  be  made,  for  a  time,  to  emanation  from  the  brain 
cells  of  animals. 

RESUSCITATION  OF  DESUETE  CELLS 

Only  further  experiments,  too,  will  enable  us  to  determine  how 
great  a  per  cent,  of  the  cells  in  aged  tissues  are  actually  dead,  and 
how  many  are  merely  desuete,  that  is  to  say,  reduced  to  the  con- 
dition of  encysted  nuclei,  still  alive  and  capable  of  being  recalled 
to  activity,  if  they  could  be  reached  by  appropriate  stimuli.  The 
germinal  chromatin  appears  to  survive  for  a  long  time  in  cells 
which  have  ceased  to  be  functionally  living. 

There  are  also  certain  observed  facts  which  lead  us  to  infer 
that  the  neuro-electronic  circulation,  when  intensified,  and  pervad- 
ing an  organism  at  full  tide,  is  of  itself  a  power  for  renewal  of 
the  cell  life  in  tissues  where  it  appears  to  be  dying  out.  By  this 
is  meant  that  even  desuete  cells  may  probably  be  rejuvenated  from 
strengthening  the  neuro-electronic  circulation  —  by  agencies  pre- 
viously mentioned.  But  all  these  questions  await  further  experi- 
ment and  careful  observation. 

THE  PSYCHIC  FACTOR  FOR   DEATHLESS   LIFE 

Lastly  we  have  to  estimate  the  psychic  factor  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  deathless  life,  the  factor  which,  from  many  points  of 
view,  should  be  considered  first. 


220  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

For  if  we  are  to  begin  at  the  beginning,  the  first  step  to  the 
achievement  of  immortal  Hfe  is  faith  that  it  can  be  done.  But 
because  the  physics  of  faith  are  less  easily  demonstrated,  and  exact 
data  are  lacking,  we  have  reserved  it  for  final  mention. 

And  by  faith  is  meant  not  an  idle,  superstitious  effort  at  be- 
lief, enjoined  by  constituted  authority,  not  a  straining  to  believe 
something  little  understood,  but  that  rational  confidence,  which 
engenders  ambitious  purpose,  incites  the  will  to  persistent  activity 
and  leads  on  to  an  orderly  marshaling  of  all  the  discoveries  of 
science  for  the  accomplishment  of  a  certain  desired  end. 

Not  without  a  deep,  well-nigh  divine  insight  did  the  greatest 
of  all  teachers  exclaim,  "  Without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please 
God  "  —  which,  in  the  less  metaphorical  thought  of  modern  times, 
signifies  that  godlike  achievements  require  confidence  for  their  in- 
ception. Supplement  this  declaration  with  that  of  another  great 
teacher  of  immortality,  that  "  faith,  without  works,  is  dead,"  and 
we  have  outlined  the  rationale  of  the  scientific  rebirth  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  practical  realization  of  its  grand  ideals  of  heaven  and 
immortal  life  on  the  earth. 

Apocryphal  accounts  and  stories  of  what  has  been  accomplished 
by  faith,  may  be  passed  by,  as  also  that  voluminous  narration  of 
cures  at  shrines  and  pilgrimage  goals.  In  much  the  same  category 
of  uncertainty  are  the  cures  by  faith-healers  and  prayer-makers. 
In  case  of  patients  with  strong  imagination  and  much  hyper- 
sensitiveness,  where  their  confidence  has  been  fully  gained  in  the 
healer's  powers,  remarkable  results  are  reported,  some  of  which 
seem  to  have  been  more  than  transient. 

It  appears  —  and  our  own  studies  of  nervous  energy  bear  out 
the  hypothesis  —  that  there  are  not  a  few  persons  who  possess  the 
ability,  or  gift,  to  project  through  their  palms  when  in  close  con- 
tact with  those  of  their  patients,  currents  of  nervous  energy  from 
the  "  field  "  of  their  own  organisms,  which  act  remedially,  for  a 
time,  at  least.  These  purely  bio-physical  phenomena  are  deserv- 
ing of  study;  their  bearing  is  of  importance  in  our  quest  for  the 
control  of  life  at  its  source. 

As  to  that  organized  effort  to  build  up  a  national  faith,  now  known 
as  "  Christian  Science,"  it  is,  perhaps,  too  soon  to  speak  confi- 
dently. Considered  apart  from  many  tenets  with  which  it  is  now 
conneffted,    the    effort    appears   to    be    essentially    one    aiming   to 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  221 

generate  faith  on  a  national  scale,  to  usher  in  a  happy  era  when 
death  and  disease  shall  be  evils  of  the  past.  In  fact,  one  of  the 
articles  of  the  Christian  Science  creed  is  in  effect  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  death,  the  whilom  king  of  terrors  being  merely  an 
illusion  of  our  mortal  minds.  A  certain  mysticism  hovers  over 
this  portion  of  the  creed.  Nor  are  Christian  Scientists,  them- 
selves, able  to  resolve  it  in  terms  an  outsider  can  understand. 
"  You  must  feci  it,"  they  say.  "  Then  you  will  knozv."  But  if 
the  appeal  is  to  our  feelings,  death  is  something  very  real  and  sad. 

All  this,  however,  has  little  to  do  with  faith  as  a  psychic  factor, 
in  a  great  enterprise  of  research ;  faith  as  an  intensive  agent. 

The  physics  of  faith  still  transcend  mathematics,  but  are  none 
the  less  real  and  pertinent  to  every  great  undertaking.  Faith 
founds  in  prevision  of  truths  not  yet  demonstrated,  but  divined 
by  the  finer,  deeper  perceptions  of  the  intellect. 

Such  faith,  such  prevision,  unfolded  before  the  eyes  of  Colum- 
bus, and  piloted  him  across  the  unknown  ocean.  Such  faith  sud- 
denly illumined  the  soul  of  Loyola  with  the  ideal  of  a  world,  won 
to  Christ,  an  ideal  which  led  the  heroic  missionary  crusade  of  the 
early  Jesuits.  Such  prescient  vision  inspired  Watts,  Stephenson 
and  Fulton,  when  they  foresaw  travel  and  commerce  in  the  giant 
grasp  of  Steam.  Franklin,  when  he  went  out  to  capture  the 
thunderbolt;  Faraday,  Volta,  Ampere  and  Edison,  when  they 
trained  it  for  human  service.  Lister,  when  he  rescued  humanity 
from  the  hitherto  unknown,  unseen  assaults  of  microbic  life. 
Morse,  Field,  Bell,  ]\Iarconi,  when,  with  ear  prophetic,  they  heard 
men  speaking  across  continents  and  oceans.  Always  it  is  this 
faith,  this  ideal  from  afar,  which  holds  up  the  torch  to  progress 
and  leads  the  way. 


THE   INHERENT   MORALITY   OF  LONGER   LIFE 

At  best,  we  are  but  making  a  start  on  the  quest  for  deathless 
life.  Yet  no  prophet's  ken  is  required  to  discern  what  might  be 
done  if  research  could  be  fully  organized  with  this  end  in  view. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  might  see  cell  nutrition  accomplished  w'ith 
a  considerable  degree  of  accuracy ;  and  in  the  farther  future,  the 
eje  of  faith  may  even  now  reasonably  foresee  the  day  when  these 


222  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

animal  organisms  of  our  inheritance  shall  be  progressively  trans- 
formed and  transfigured  to  the  more  "  spiritual  "  bodies  of  the 
apostle's  vision,  when,  in  very  truth,  "  this  corruptible  shall  put  on 
incorruption."  No  miracle  is  needed,  no  supernatural  rescue.  The 
way  lies  open.  Man  can  reach  this  diviner  life  by  his  own  ex- 
ertions. Nor  should  the  effort  be  stigmatized  as  hardy  or  blas- 
phemous. It  will  be  through  such  lustration  of  the  process  of 
nutrition,  such  purging  and  cleansing  from  internal  foulness,  that 
we  shall  enter  into  the  greater  life. 

What  will  follow  the  realization  that  death  is  not  inevitable? 
What  aspect,  what  guise  will  our  lives  assume  when  we  come  to 
know  and  feel  that  we  have  unlimited  time  ahead?  What  re- 
adjustments of  former  ideals  will  ensue?  What  changes  in 
family  life? 

Lucretius  pictured  the  calm  of  the  gods.  Certain  it  is  that  with 
the  constant,  daily  expectation  and  dread  of  death  lifted  from  our 
minds,  a  tranquillity  will  supervene  which,  of  itself,  will  tremen- 
dously conduce  to  the  conservation  of  life  and  its  continuation.  It 
is  the  present  certainty  of  death  and  the  chill  of  its  shadow  which 
measurably  conduce  to  dying.  We  are,  in  a  sense,  hypnotized  by 
this  image  of  our  doom,  as  when  the  springbok,  beneath  the  paw 
of  the  lion,  gives  up  and  yields  to  its  fate  without  further  struggle, 
and  can  scarcely  be  induced  to  rise  or  breathe,  even  after  the  lion 
is  shot.  For  among  the  many  causes  of  death  is  the  psychic 
paralysis,  the  fixed  belief  that  death  is  certain.  It  robs  us  of  the 
power  to  react  from  it.  Serfs  of  death,  we  have  resigned  our- 
selves to  the  yoke,  and  endeavor  to  believe  that  it  is  the  will  of 
God,  the  predestined  order  of  the  universe. 

What  will  follow  when  hope  suddenly  fills  the  heart  that  we  may 
not  die,  when  the  dread  shadow  lifts?  The  human  mind  will,  in 
good  truth,  be  born  again,  redeemed  from  "  sin,"  and  the  wish  to 
sin,  by  its  passage  from  death  unto  life. 

Hatred,  spite,  envy,  malice  are  but  the  weak  ebullitions  of  des- 
peration. Such  traits  are  but  incident  to  the  hardships  of  our 
environment.  Intellect,  when  favorably  developed,  does  not  evince 
these  ignoble  traits;  they  are  moral  distortions  of  mind,  from 
thwarting  of  its  natural  desires,  largely  owing  to  the  shortness  of 
life,  ill  health  and  limited  opportunities.     Hence  we  may  confi- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  223 

dently  look  for  such  traits  to  disappear  from  minds  endowed  with 
time  for  the  reaHzation  of  normal  ideals. 

In  like  manner,  and  for  the  same  reason,  crime  will  cease  because 
illogical  and  foolish.  No  man,  not  an  idiot,  would  commit  a  crime 
if  he  knew  he  was  to  live  and  face  the  consequences  of  it  for  a 
thousand  years !  But  because  he  expects  to  live  a  few  years  only 
and  may,  in  the  ruck  and  moil  of  things,  escape  the  consequences, 
he  decides  to  risk  it ;  —  since  crime  is  but  a  hasty  snatch  at  illu- 
sory pleasure,  or  relief  from  the  woes  of  life.  It  is  merely  that 
to  get  relief,  or  happiness,  honestly,  takes  more  time  than  to  grab 
it  dishonestly.  Confraternity  is  the  only  condition  which  can  ob- 
tain among  those  who  must  live  continuously  together.  No  other 
social  regime  is  then  practicable.  It  is  these  deep  sequences  which 
lead  the  modern  biologist  to  revert  with  renewed  respect  to  the  real 
ideas  of  the  Youth  of  Nazareth. 

Deathless  life  is  the  natural  antidote  for  human  "  sin,"  the 
elevation  of  human  life  to  a  higher  plane,  the  redemption  from 
what  is  hopeless  and  brutal ;  —  for  that  is  what  "  sin  "  is.  Saved 
from  "  sin,"  that  fabled  "  Golden  Age  "  will  return,  of  which  poets 
have  sung  and  seers  dreamed.  The  Golden  Rule  of  Christianity 
will  necessarily  become  the  rational  course  of  human  life  as  soon 
as  we  are  free  from  disease  and  death.    ■ 

With  the  hope  of  deathless  life  will  come  redemption  from  pro- 
creation :  that  gusty  draught  of  Lethe  through  which  we  surrender 
life  by  passing  it  on  from  our  own  organisms  to  those  of  another 
generation.  Yet  our  only  present  alternative  is  this  act  of  transfer, 
or  seeing  ourselves  die  irretrievably  and  the  family  name  perish; 
and  at  its  best  aspect  it  means  death  for  the  parent;  for  the  child 
must  have  its  parent's  place  on  earth,  and  that,  too,  without  undue 
delay. 

When  fostered,  reared  and  grown,  the  child  turns  to  the  parent 
and,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  practically  cries,  "  Hence.  Die.  I 
must  take  your  place  for  myself  and  my  own  children.  Why  do 
you  linger?     You  have  had  your  day." 

True,  there  is  a  decent  veneration  for  parents;  but  right  well 
the  parent  knows  that  he  must  not  enjoy  it  too  long.  His  acres 
are  expected,  his  competence  bespoken;  there  is  impatience  if  his 
tarrying  is  protracted. 

There  was  an  ex-President  who.  as  he  neared  three  score,  be- 


224  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

thought  himself  to  begin  Hfe  afresh,  and  make  a  new  home  for 
himself  with  a  second,  loved  companion-in-life.  So  far  from 
sympathizing,  his  adult  offspring  demurred  at  once.  It  was  not 
until  he  had  divided  his  acquired  competence  among  them,  that 
their  clamor  ceased,  and  then  only  in  part.  Was  it  not,  practi- 
cally, his  death  which  his  offspring  demanded?  True,  they 
would  have  tolerated  his  easy  chair  among  them  for  twenty 
years,  perhaps,  but  they  were  unwilling  to  allow  him  actually 
to  live  as  a  man.  Going  deeper,  we  see  that  what  he  wished 
to  do  controverted  the  present  parent-to-child  modus  of  hu- 
man life.  Whether  we  wish  it  or  not,  whether  we  feel  within 
us  the  capacity  and  the  desire  to  live  longer  or  not,  we  must  die 
in  order  to  give  place  to  the  on-coming  generation.  It  is  a  phase 
of  the  horrible  immorality  of  death  and  its  present  alternative  — 
procreation.  "  But  I  say  unto  you  that  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
they  neither  marry,  nor  are  given  in  marriage."  A  far  divination 
of  deathless  life  prompted  those  words,  and  has  voiced  them  down 
the  corridors  of  time  for  nineteen  centuries;  and  they  will  be 
better  understood  nineteen  centuries  hence,  than  now :  that  ideal 
"  Kingdom  of  God  "  that  pictured  itself  in  all  the  thoughts  and 
words  of  that  wonderful  Galilean  Youth ;  —  for  he  was  little  more 
than  a  youth  when  they  nailed  him  to  a  cross.  He  visioned  too 
much  truth  to  be  allowed  to  live  long.  Nor  could  he  survive  long 
in  the  world  to-day.  He  would,  peradventure,  be  put  to  death,  or 
ostracized,  by  the  very  Church  which  has  assumed  his  name. 

A  disturbing  feature  of  our  present  brief  lives  is  haste  and  con- 
stant hurry.  Civilization,  so-called,  urges  us  on ;  there  are  a  thou- 
sand things  to  do,  a  myriad  objects  to  attain,  and  time  is  short. 
Hence  the  rush  for  accomplishment  before  the  ax  falls.  The 
conscientious  mind  wishes  to  do  its  duty  by  contemporaries 
and  by  offspring  —  before  the  to-morrow  of  death.  Always  there 
is  the  distracting  uncertainty  when  the  fatal  hour  may  strike  — 
with  so  much  left  undone.  Hence  the  feverish  onward  push  which 
of  itself  is  a  cause  of  old-aging.  Contrast  this  haggard  haste  with 
the  vital  calm  of  one  who  knew  that  he  had  all  future  time  for 
his  behoof,  that  he  could  work  leisurely  and  joyously.  Certain  it 
is,  too,  that  he  who  had  all  time  at  his  disposal,  would  do  nothing 
badly.  It  would  not  be  worth  while.  Every  job  would  better  be 
excellentlv  done. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  225 

And  our  fathers,  our  ancestors,  what  of  them?  Instead  of  dim 
memories  of  old  faces  and  aged  organisms,  long  in  their  graves, 
our  forefathers  will,  eventually,  be  with  us,  grown  patriarchal  in 
wisdom,  their  bodies  transfigured  by  the  growth  of  knowledge. 
Still  with  us,  leading  the  way  for  the  improvement  of  the  earth, 
the  control  of  nature.  Our  ancestors  will  be  our  mentors,  our 
counselors.  What  unbroken  family  circles  will  yet  gather  at  the 
ancestral  homesteads  of  this  imparadised  old  earth!  No  more 
wailing,  anguished  infancy,  painfully  learning  over  and  over  again 
the  mere  alphabet  and  accidence  of  life,  but  the  perfected  adult  of 
that  Tennysonian,  crowning  race,  — 

"Of  those  that  ej'e  to  eye  shall  look 
On  knowledge ;  under  whose  command 
Is  earth  and  earth's,  and  in  their  hand 
Is  Nature,  like  an  open  book. 

"No  longer  half  akin  to  brute, 
For  all  we  thought  and  loved  and  did, 
And  hoped  and  suffered  is  but  seed 
Of  what  in  them  is  flower  and  fruit." 


WHAT  HAS  BEEN  DONE  THUS  FAR 

What  the  present  investigator  has  accomplished  thus  far,  may 
be  set  down  in  brief. 

1.  Demonstration  (1888)  that  the  causes  of  old  age  in  animal 
organisms  are  essentially  ordinary,  physical  causes,  capable  of 
alleviation  by  human  science,  and  not  due  to  an  immutable  law  of 
life  as  hitherto  had  been  the  general  belief. 

2.  Presentation  of  the  facts  concerning  the  cell-of-life.  namely, 
that  it  is  the  one  and  the  only  means  or  type  of  life  on  the  earth; 
and  that  all  the  metazoons,  including  man,  are  but  so  many  long- 
perfected  organizations  of  cells,  in  which  the  cell  type  still  per- 
sists. 

3.  Evidences  of  the  preservation  or  natural  salvation  of  the 
unicells  by  union  and  organization  in  the  multicell  or  metazoon. 
and  the  indicated  salvation  of  the  still  progressive  multicell  (man) 
in  the  organized,  perfected  nation  of  the  future. 

4.  Demonstration  of  the  manner  (1892)  in  which  the  lives  of 


226  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

the  cells  are  unified  or  pooled,  in  the  larger  life  and  personality  of 
the  multicell. 

5.  Presentation  (1892)  of  the  evidence  that  every  cell  of  the 
multicellular  organism  possesses  a  personahty  of  its  own,  a  little 
self,  and  that  all  the  millions  of  cell  selves  are  pooled  and  organ- 
ized in  the  personal  life  of  man,  by  means  of  the  nervous  system. 

6.  Demonstration  of  the  unification  of  the  multicells  (human- 
ity) in  the  greater  communal  life  of  the  nation  where,  in  an  im- 
perfect manner  as  yet,  mankind  is  uniting  and  pooling  its  knowl- 
edge to  accomplish  great  public  enterprises. 

7.  The  evidence  that  the  human  brain  is  a  still  progressive  tis- 
sue of  the  organism,  physically,  steadily  unfolding  new  capacity 
for  the  reception  of  knowledge.  Proofs  taken  from  the  entire 
course  and  history  of  life  on  earth,  to  demonstrate  that  it  has 
made  a  continuous  upward  progress  tow^ard  better  conditions, 
from  the  very  first;  toward  salvation  from  evil  and  error,  justify- 
ing faith  and  hope  for  the  future. 

8.  A  suggested  solution,  from  the  biological  view-point,  of  the 
much  mooted  problem  of  clairvoyance,  clairaudience,  "  second 
sight,"  and  "  spiritualism  "  generally ;  dealing  with  the  question 
of  double  personality  and  the  psychic  powers  of  '*  mediums,"  so 
styled;  pointing  out  how  the  human  personality  lives  on  in  the 
heredity-chromatin  (germ-plasm)  of  the  race;  pointing  out,  too, 
how  a  dead  person  may  possibly  be  recalled  from  this  "spirit-land" 
of  the  race  life,  without  being  actually  alive  in  the  sense  of  being 
self-conscious. 

9.  Nutrition  of  the  unicells  and  multicells  compared,  showing 
how  the  cell-of-life,  by  uniting  with  its  fellows  in  multicellular 
organisms,  has,  by  co-operative  effort,  improved  its  food,  from  the 
crude  substances  which  unicells  were  forced  to  ingest,  to  the 
highly  refined  blood  plasma  from  which  the  cells  of  the  human 
body  are  nourished;  thereby  attaining  a  species  of  natural  salva- 
tion for  the  cell,  prolonging  its  lifetime  from  a  few  days  to  a 
century. 

10.  Demonstration  of  the  old-aging  of  the  cells  in  animal  or- 
ganisms, showing  not  only  that  the  organism  grows  old  and 
decrepit,  but  that  the  component  cells,  themselves,  become  senes- 
cent; in  short,  that  old  age,  as  we  know  it,  is  but  the  outward  ex- 
pression of  an  antecedent  cell  old  age. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  227 

IT.  The  part  played  in  old  age  by  the  shrinkage  of  the  capilla- 
ries, and  the  resultant  obstruction  to  the  circulation  of  the  blood 
disks. 

12.  The  part  played  in  old  age  by  the  thickening  and  foul- 
ing of  the  alveolar  membrane  in  the  lungs,  rendering  it  less  per- 
vious to  oxygen  and  to  carbon  dioxide. 

13.  The  part  played  in  old  age  by  the  dying-out  of  the  com- 
ponent cells  of  organic  tissues,  leaving  these  tissues  composed 
largely  of  the  lifeless  products  of  cell  growth,  which  subsequently 
waste  away,  without  inherent  power  for  self-repair. 

14.  Indicated  methods  for  a  perfected  nutrition  of  the  cell-of- 
life,  and  its  regeneration  in  situ,  from  which  will  come  —  as  we 
believe  —  relief  from  old-aging  and  freedom  to  live  as  long  as 
desired. 

15.  The  argument  —  as  here  presented  —  for  the  achievement 
of  deathless  Hfe,  and  a  scientific  renaissance  of  the  Christian 
faith,  by  the  practical  realization  of  its  ideals  of  heaven  and  im- 
mortal life. 

Little  enough  to  have  done  —  when  looked  back  on.  Others, 
too,  may  have  done  it  as  well,  or  better.  Science  is  ever  a  com- 
munal effort,  where  the  researches  and  discoveries  of  one  student 
open  the  way  to  those  of  another. 

Undoubtedly  a  great  amount  of  work,  patient  work,  work  in- 
spired by  a  fixed  purpose,  has  yet  to  be  done  for  fifteen,  twenty  or 
thirty  years ;  and  the  conviction  has  been  slowly  forced  upon  the 
present  investigator  that  he  may  not  be  able  to  do  it  alone.  "  Years 
steal  fire  from  the  mind,"  and  as  is  so  often  the  case,  the  un- 
shrinking courage  of  youth  is  compelled  to  heed  that  wisdom 
which  time  leaves  in  the  place  of  its  thefts  —  the  wisdom  which 
puts  its  trust  in  well-organized  co-operation;  that  potent  pooling 
of  effort  by  which  humanity  now  carries  through  its  world-labors. 
Human  beings,  in  the  past,  have  been  slow  in  learning  the  great 
lesson  of  united  effort,  and  even  now  are  often  reluctant  to  work 
together  for  grand  ends.  But  if  the  entire  evolution  of  life  on  the 
earth,  from  protozoon  to  man,  teaches  one  lesson  more  explicitly 
than  another,  it  is  the  great  lesson  of  co-operative  effort,  commune 
labor,  team  work. 


228  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

CO-OPERATION,  THE  KEYNOTE  OF  VITAU 
EVOLUTION 

What  the  cell-of-life  is  in  the  animal  organism  the  individual 
citizen  is  in  the  nation,  that  is  to  say,  the  vital  unit  wherein  the 
national  life  inheres.  The  constructive,  not  the  destructive,  so- 
cialist can  find  no  better  model  for  study  than  the  position  and 
economic  relations  of  the  cell  in  the  animal  body,  as  applied  to  the 
citizen  in  the  nation.     The  analogy  is  close  and  impressive. 

This  analogy,  too,  rests  on  something  deeper  than  a  fanciful 
resemblance,  or  similitude.  It  founds  in  physical  law.  The  same 
etheric  aura  holds  and  enfolds  alike  citizen  and  cell.  Each  cell- 
of-life  radiates  emanations  and  maintains  about  itself  an  aura  in 
the  ether.  From  the  confluence  of  contiguous  cell  auras  arises 
the  personal  aura  of  the  animal  body,  which  in  greater  or  less 
degree  surrounds  and  enfolds  every  human  being  throughout  life; 
and  from  the  confluence  of  personalities  comes  the  national,  com- 
munal life.  This  is  no  imaginary  statement,  no  figment  of  the 
fancy,  but  a  physical  fact. 

Moreover,  every  life  appears  to  have  a  degree  of  tension,  or 
frequency  of  vibration,  of  its  own,  which  stirs  and  influences  the 
ether  to  vast  distances.  Contemplate,  then,  what  must  follow  in 
terms  of  harmony  or  of  discord,  when  a  million  or  a  hundred 
million  lives  —  whether  cells  of  the  animal  organism  or  fellow 
citizens  of  a  nation  —  attempt  to  live  together.  We  live  wisely 
or  not,  or  at  least  easily  or  not,  according  as  we  live  in  beat  and 
harmony  with  the  whole  life  of  the  nation.  Eminent,  pure  and 
correct  lives  strike  harmonious  chords  in  this  great  anthem  of  the 
world's  music.  The  founders  of  the  religions  of  humanity  — 
Jesus,  Mohammed,  Siddhartha  —  have  actually  changed  the  etheric 
harmony,  the  key,  the  pitch,  at  which  hundreds  of  millions  of 
their  disciples  and  followers  live,  and  even  substitute  one  Life- 
anthem  for  another.  None  the  less,  even  the  lowliest  life  goes  to 
swell  the  chorus,  either  harmoniously,  or  otherwise. 

The  thousands  or  the  millions  of  people  in  a  town  or  a  nation 
irradiate  a  composite  aura  which  enfolds,  modifies  and  profoundly 
influences  all  who  reside  in  that  town  or  country.  We  shall  ere- 
long be   able   to   demonstrate   this   emanation   in   physical   terms. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  ^29 

measure  it,  gauge  it  and  determine  the  moral  tone  not  only  of  the 
individuals,  but  of  towns  and  nations.  A  metropolitan  aura 
may  be  good  and  helpful  as  a  whole  to  the  individual  citizen,  or 
it  may  be  bad  and  depressing.  It  is  a  question  of  the  quality  and 
purity  of  the  majority  of  the  individual  lives  there.  Who  but  has 
felt  the  depressing  bio-physical  effect  of  certain  quarters  of  our 
largest  cities?     It  is  the  aura  of  depravity  and  death. 

Organized  in  the  nation,  too,  the  greater  composite  life  of  all 
its  citizens  is  capable  of  the  most  gigantic  feats.  Compared  with 
the  effort  of  one  man,  working  alone,  a  nation's  might  is  as  the 
strength  of  the  elephant  in  contrast  with  the  feeble  movement  of 
a  unicell  in  the  puddle  by  the  roadside.  Scientific  faith  is  therefore 
placed  in  the  organized  co-operation  of  the  nation  or  the  race,  or 
more  restrictedly,  the  progressive,  enlightened  portion  of  the  race. 

Better,  longer,  happier  life  came  to  the  unicell  from  organiza- 
tion in  the  multicell.  Greatly  prolonged  life,  looking  toward 
deathless  life,  will  come  to  the  human  multicell  from  co-operative 
organization  in  the  greater,  stronger  life  of  united  humanity,  or 
that  portion  of  it  which  can  be  brought  to  recognize  the  truth  and 
act  together. 

Far  more,  even,  than  our  clearest  minds  are  aware,  our  lives 
now  depend  on  the  larger,  communal  life  of  the  race.  All  of  his- 
tory, science  and  intellect  in  the  higher  sense,  is  due  to  the  reflex 
action  of  this  larger  life  on  us  personally;  all  that  distinguishes 
the  educated  man  of  our  times  from  the  bone-cave  savage  of  the 
Quaternary  drift,  whose  radius  of  activity  described  only  a  four- 
mile  circle  around  his  filthy  cavern,  whose  days  were  passed  in 
ferocious  hunts  for  food,  his  nights  in  shivering  fears  of  attack. 
Who  heard  the  footfalls  of  evil  spirits  behind  every  bush,  saw 
gods  on  every  hill,  and  whose  religion  consisted  of  rude  rites  and 
sacrifices  to  propitiate  these.  Who  dreaded  with  good  reason  the 
approach  of  his  fellow  men,  and  whose  highest  feats  of  strategy 
lay  in  ambuscading  and  massacring  them. 

Such  was  primeval  man  as  we  first  know  him,  a  roving,  lurking, 
unorganized  human  protozoon.  Altruism  was  as  yet  unborn  in  his 
brain,  the  advantages  of  co-operation  undreamed  of.  Whatev^er 
we  are  better  off  than  that  bloody-handed  hamadryad  of  the  bone- 
caves,  is  due  to  our  communal  life. 

It  is  owing  entirely  to  that  life  that  we  can  travel  in  ease  and 


230  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

safety  far  from  our  primitive  caves,  even  around  the  world,  and 
secure  to  ourselves  the  cultivation  which  comes  from  such  travel. 
It  is  due  entirely  to  our  co-operative  life  that  commerce  goes  on 
and  the  fruits  and  goods  from  every  quarter  of  the  planet  are 
brought  to  our  doors;  that  railways  link  country  to  country,  and 
steamship  lines  continent  to  continent. 

It  is  due  to  our  communistic  life  —  imperfect  as  it  still  is  — 
that  we  have  literature,  history,  science  and  the  news  published 
for  all  from  day  to  day ;  that  the  sea  is  underlaid  with  telegraph 
cables,  the  land  overspread  with  wires,  which  put  us  in  thought- 
touch  with  our  fellows,  thousands  of  miles  away. 

To  this  larger  life,  too,  it  is  due  that  remedial,  surgical  and 
sanitary  science  has  developed  and  now  adds  so  much  of  comfort 
and  assurance  to  our  lives.  To  the  larger  life,  that  invention, 
architecture  and  all  the  arts  have  made  life  comfortable. 

To  this  larger  life,  also,  that  ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  justice 
and  injustice,  are  able  to  find  expression  in  public  sentiment  and 
take  the  form  of  law  for  the  equable  protection  of  all. 

All  these,  however,  are  but  the  outward  and  superficial  aspects 
of  the  communal  life.  Its  preeminent  influence  and  effect  are  on 
the  mind,  the  brain,  of  the  individual.  This  greater  life,  with  all 
its  varied  interests  and  many  businesses,  holds  us  up  to  a  certain 
key  or  pitch,  lifts  us  to  a  wider  horizon.  Isolated  from  it,  the 
individual  man  would  relapse  to  an  inert,  sluggish  creature,  caring 
for  naught  save  sensory  pleasure  —  in  a  word,  to  a  savage.  It 
is  the  larger,  communal  life,  yielding  a  constant  influx  of  knowl- 
edge from  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  which  now  develops  the  in- 
dividual man,  raising  him  to  higher  degrees  of  intellect;  not 
otherwise  than  in  the  metazoic  organism  where  the  larger  life  of 
the  man  or  animal  elevates,  improves,  and  strengthens  the  life  of 
every  tissue  cell,  raising  up  brain  life  from  simple  cell  life. 

Already  the  life  of  the  individual  is  safeguarded  and  greatly 
prolonged  from  living  in  the  larger,  organized  life  of  the  com- 
munity; even  as  the  unicell  attained  longer  life  from  uniting  with 
its  fellows  in  the  multicell.  By  perfecting  this  communal  life  of 
pan-humanity,  the  analogy  would  lead  us  to  infer  that  the  life  of 
the  individual  man  may  be  prolonged  a  thousand  times.  The 
promise  of  the  metazoon  to  the  meta-metazoon  of  the  future  would 
be  a  lifetime  of  thirty  thousand  years  to  its  individual  citizens. 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  23 1 

Slow  and  blind,  indeed,  is  he  who  does  not  grasp  the  signifi- 
cance of  this  great  effort  of  unicellular  life.  Even  so  must  the 
sons  of  men  achieve  a  natural  salvation  from  disease,  "  sin  "  and 
death.  It  is  the  great  lesson  of  the  ages.  Humanity  must  unite, 
organize  and  co-operate,  in  order  to  grow  in  knowledge  and  gain 
control  of  nature.  Such  is  the  promise  of  science.  Thitherward 
lie  "  heaven  "  and  immortal  life. 

The  obstacles  in  the  way  of  deathless  life,  on  a  globe  of  matter 
like  the  earth,  are  too  great  to  be  overcome  by  the  individual  man, 
striving  for  it  alone.  He  must  augment  his  feeble  might  by  com- 
bining with  his  fellows ;  and  the  point  which  we  wish  to  make  here 
is  that,  with  a  clear  understanding  of  our  true  situation  and  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  facts  of  nature,  we  might  at  once  organize  pow- 
erfully and,  with  this  grand  object  in  view,  achieve  results  within 
thirty,  forty  or  fifty  years,  such  as  will  otherwise  wait  and  lag  for 
centuries.  If  even  a  million  or  a  hundred  thousand  educated 
Americans  would  work  together  with  hope  and  faith,  no  obstacle 
to  research  and  discovery  could  long  withstand  us.  Deathless  life 
might  come  speedily.  The  achievement  would  depend  on  the 
wholeness  and  heartiness  of  the  co-operative  effort.  No  con- 
ceivable task  in  research  or  amelioration  of  the  human  lot  will 
prove  too  great  for  that  nation  or  people  which  consecrates  itself 
as  one  man  to  the  eft'ort. 

Even  in  so  indifferent  an  enterprise  as  that  made  by  the  Amer- 
ican people  at  Panama,  we  see  an  Isthmus  pierced  and  five  hundred 
million  cubic  yards  of  earth  and  rock  cast  aside.  But  what  is  that 
compared  with  what  this  nation  could  do  if  we  set  to  work  with 
faith  and  enthusiasm!  Verily,  but  the  touch  of  an  infant  hand 
to  the  hammer  stroke  of  Thor,  or  the  giant  rush  of  charioted 
Achilles,  driving  to  battle. 

If  that  grand  co-operative  effort  to  which  America  gave  itself, 
to  rescue  the  world  from  a  recrudescence  of  barbarism,  in  191 7, 
could  be  enlisted  in  the  endeavor  to  win  deathless  life,  ten  years 
might  see  it  an  accomplished  fact. 

If  the  combined  enthusiasm,  genius,  inventive  skill  and  hard 
study  which  have  latterly  been  directed  to  perfecting  the  auto- 
mobile and  the  aeroplane,  could  be  devoted  to  the  researches 
above  indicated,  for  prolonging  human  life,  victory  over  man's 
last  grim  enemy  would  soon  be  gained. 


2^2  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

The  mighty  walls  of  Babylon,  and  the  Pyramids  were  reared  by 
an  enforced  co-operation  of  labor.  The  ideal  co-operation  is  one 
inspired  by  fraternal  good-will  and  enthusiasm  in  the  hearts  of  the 
workers. 

Alas,  that  this  potential  giant  of  the  greater  life  still  sleeps, 
sleeps  and  dreams  of  distant  "  heavens,"  or  "  hells." 

For  the  obstacle,  and  the  only  one  that  holds  us  back  from  the 
achievement  of  deathless  life,  is  lack  of  faith  that  it  can  be  done, 
lack  of  that  faith  which  nerves  every  great  achievement;  lack  of 
faith,  and  indifference  to  life  on  the  part  of  our  fellow  men;  dis- 
belief in  the  future  of  life  on  the  earth;  apathy  and  the  hundred 
degrees  of  pessimism  which  prevail  naturally  in  a  population  living 
largely  for  sensory  pleasures,  and  the  born-thralls  of  erroneous 
creeds. 

Inventiveness,  skill  and  wealth  are  not  wanting,  if  one  million 
of  people  in  Europe  and  America  would  unite  to  this  end.  Some 
of  us  now  living,  even,  might  grasp  the  grand  prize,  and  literally 
pass  from  death  unto  life.  But  as  yet  we  are  not  able  to  bring  the 
truth  home  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  living  units  of  our  great 
potential  confraternity.  Their  minds  are  still  inert  from  doubt. 
Why?  One  word  explains  much  of  it:  Supernaturalism,  and  its 
gilded  promissory  of  another  life  somewhere  else. 

The  new  faith  here  presented  offers  the  strongest  motive  con- 
ceivable for  mankind  to  unite  and  work  together  for  one  common 
purpose  —  Life.  Supernaturalism  still  blocks  the  way.  Virtually, 
it  condemns  us  all  to  death. 

That  is  ever  the  cruel,  killing  feature  of  it.  The  discoveries 
which  might  come  in  a  decade  bid  fair  to  drag  along  for  centuries, 
when  they  might  come  rapidly.  Perfected  cell  food,  the  extirpa- 
tion of  disease-producing  bacteria,  regeneration  of  the  tissue  cell 
in  situ,  cumulative  control  and  use  of  cell  energy :  all  might  come 
in  a  few  years. 

In  America  we  are  still  a  huge,  forceful  democracy,  sprawling 
across  the  continent  like  some  enormous  amceba,  segregating  in 
hostile  classes  and  castes  of  aggrieved,  malcontent  individuals. 
Unity  or  harmony  there  is  little  enough,  as  yet.  The  potential 
energy  of  the  great  national  aura  is  largely  wasted  in  discordant 
wrangles.  Like  the  swarming  hive  we  buzz,  madly  crawl,  wrangle 
and  sting  each  other,  from  lack  as  yet  of  the  greater  voice,  the 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  233 

deeper  signal-note  from  the  queen  bee,  bidding  each  worker  drop 
selfishness  and  stand  together  for  that  greater,  grander  object,  the 
swarm-life  That  call  we  still  wait.  That  greater  Voice  we  have 
yet  to  hear. 

Why  sigh  for  "  heaven  "  in  some  distant  quarter  of  the  uni- 
verse, or  some  fourth  dimension  of  space?  The  outer  shell  of 
this  old  earth  is  a  glorious  habitat.  Imperfections  it  has,  but  it 
can  be  transformed  to  a  paradise. 

And  the  grandeur  of  our  situation  here!  —  our  feet  on  these 
storied  strata,  our  faces  to  the  illimitable  fields  of  sun-strewn 
space.  And  we  have  eyes  to  see  the  light  of  all  these  galaxies, 
light  that  has  been  thousands  of  years  on  its  way  to  us ! 

And  must  we  die,  miserably  die,  and  leave  this  grand  old  home- 
stead of  ours,  ours  from  ancestry  and  natural  entail  through  a 
million  centuries  of  terrestrial  life?  Die  and  miss  it  all  for  the 
endless  future,  die  and  lapse  into  the  insentient  void !  Is  not  that 
suffocating  thought  one  to  drive  us  to  work  for  life's  sake? 


THE   NEED    OF   CO-OPERATIVE   RESEARCH 

In  the  past,  the  great  discoveries  of  science  have  often  been 
accidental,  or  well-nigh  so,  discoveries  which  have  come  to  light 
by  chance  in  the  course  of  other,  more  sordid  pursuits. 

Oftener  still  such  discoveries  have  been  the  lone  exploits  of 
some  solitary  student,  or  inventor,  starving  in  a  garret,  to  whom 
no  one  would  give  ear  or  aid.  So  frequently,  indeed,  has  this 
been  the  case,  the  fallacious  idea  prevails  that  this  is  the  normal 
course  and  source  of  scientific  discovery  and  invention  —  some 
ill-equipped  inventor,  working  alone  and  in  secret,  in  a  garret  or 
cellar ! 

Not  infrequently,  too,  in  the  past  and  at  present,  there  is  per- 
sonal jealousy  between  those  who  are  attempting  to  work  out  new 
ideas  to  be  "  patented."  leading  to  secrecy  and  even  to  deception 
and  the  dissemination  of  false  information. 

What  a  humiliating  picture  does  this  give  of  the  yet  unorgan- 
ized character  of  scientific  progress !  In  this  respect  we  are  still 
so  many  predatory  human  protozoons,  each  striving  for  self,  un- 


234  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

regardful  of  the  advantages  of  co-operative  effort,  and  too  sus- 
picious or  too  selfish  to  work  with  our  fellows. 

All  this  must  now  be  changed  in  the  greater  interests  of  the 
larger  life  of  man.  Such  primitive,  "  unicellular "  methods  of 
discovery  must  now  give  place  to  organized  experiment  and  co- 
operative research,  where  each  student  and  investigator  has  his 
pre-arranged  part  to  work  out  and  perfect. 

At  the  biological  laboratories  of  our  universities  and  scientific 
institutes,  no  distinct  purpose  now  prevails.  Research  goes  on 
haphazard,  so  to  speak,  without  definite  object,  save  abstract 
science.  There  is  no  plan  for  achieving  a  great  end.  Hence 
scientific  experimentation  goes  forward  slowly,  listlessly,  without 
enthusiasm.  What  is  needed  at  all  these  laboratories  is  ambition, 
hope  and  faith  to  work  for  Life's  sake  —  personal  life  for  the 
worker. 

What  might  not  a  thousand,  a  hundred  even,  or  fifty,  well- 
equipped  biologists  accomplish  if  brought  together  to  investigate 
this  important  problem  of  a  bio-chemically  perfect  cell  food,  or  the 
equally  important  one  of  analyzing  nervous  energy,  with  a  view  to 
producing  its  equivalent,  synthetically,  or  combining  in  one  cur- 
rent the  output  of  nervous  energy  from  a  group  of  persons,  for 
transmission  to  an  infirm  subject? 

Ignorantly  and  in  a  crude  way,  something  like  this  is  brought 
about  in  the  alleged  "  prayer  cures  "  and  "  faith  cures."  The 
"  magnetic  healers,"  et  hoc  genus  omne,  also  operate  and  thrive 
from  a  knack  of  summoning  their  cell  energy  and  projecting  it, 
by  an  effort  of  the  will,  to  the  organism  of  a  weaker,  diseased 
person. 

The  emanation  projected,  appears  to  be  a  composite  current, 
containing  electrons,  but  made  up  mainly  of  more  minute  particles 
of  exceeding  subtility.  Electrons  are  present  in  the  current;  that 
has  been  proven ;  but  more  subtile  emanations  from  the  cells  appear 
to  accompany  them.  It  is  already  known,  too,  that  a  certain 
rhythm,  or  consonance,  is  requisite  between  the  "  healer,"  impart- 
ing the  emanations,  and  the  recipient,  as  if  a  low  or  high  voltage 
of  the  current  might  be  involved  in  the  success  of  the  effort,  or 
synchronous  wave-lengths,  as  is  requisite  for  interpreting  wireless 
messages  through  the  ether. 

What  we  have  need  to  discover  is  a  scientific  method  of  com- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  235 

bining  the  cell-energy  of  a  number  —  perhaps  in  time  of  a  large 
number  —  of  healthy  persons,  or  animals,  in  a  powerful  current, 
tide,  or  aura,  regulating  its  consonance  and  applying  it  for  pur- 
poses of  cure  or  regeneration.  What  is  needed  is  media  of  con- 
duction from  one  organism  to  another. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  every  human  being  generates  and  wastes 
a  vast  amount  of  nervous  energy,  which  might  be  economized, 
conserved  and  used  for  purposes  of  rejuvenation.  For  it  is  by  no 
means  impossible  for  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  persons  to  live  in 
such  vital  harmony,  so  bio-synchronously,  by  means  of  media  and 
conduction  methods,  that  many  forms  of  disease  may  be  success- 
fully resisted  and  certain  steps  in  regeneration  effected. 

Bio-physical  altruism,  this  might  well  be  called ;  altruism  in 
actual  practice,  physically.  Hitherto  altruism  has  been  a  pleasant 
theory,  held  in  a  somewhat  vague,  ill-defined  way;  but  by  means 
of  this  bond  of  brain  cell  energy  we  may  set  up  altruism  with  our 
fellow  men  in  terms  of  physics.  In  truth,  we  are  but  at  the  be- 
ginnings of  this  great  subject  of  controlling  the  currents  of  energy 
which  the  cell-of-life  produces.  As  we  live  at  present  that  energy 
is  largely  squandered. 

A  full  tide,  or  "  head,"  of  nervous  energy  is  nature's  protection 
from  disease.  We  fall  into  abnormal,  diseased  conditions,  from 
lowered  vital  tonicity,  causing  lack  of  resisting  power.  Vital  tonic- 
ity may  be  intensified,  at  will,  by  scientific  appliances. 

The  ideal  aimed  at  in  this,  is  to  have  at  command  a  full  head 
of  "  vim,"  or  "  nervous  energy,"  for  the  fortification  and  protec- 
tion of  the  organism,  and  also  for  holding  it  in  harmonious  func- 
tion, maintaining  that  much  desiderated  condition  called  "  con- 
stitution." ■! 

Given  vital  energy  at  command,  to  use  as  needed,  it  is  not  be- 
lieved here  that  the  involution,  or  devolution,  of  the  cell,  known  as 
"  old  age,"  will  go  on,  or  be  initiated.  A  full  head  of  vital  energy 
in  the  organism,  maintaining  a  strong  aura  of  life,  is  the  natural 
antidote  to  old-aging. 

From  a  bio-chemically  accurate  nutrition  of  the  cell-of-life  will 
come  the  gradual  elimination  of  the  grossness,  coarseness  and 
ugliness  of  the  human  organism,  often  so  repulsively  exhibited 
as  that  organism  ages.  These  unsightly  conditions  are  largely  the 
result  of  inaccurate,  or  perverted  nutrition  of  the  cells,  and  the 


236  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

gradual  falling  out  of  harmony  of  the  co-related  organs  and 
apparatuses. 

With  perfected  nutrition,  will  come  abiding  health  and  a  pro- 
gressive spiritualization  of  the  human  body,  realizing  the  vague 
religious  aspiration  for  a  spiritual  body,  that  is  to  say,  a  body  less 
"  carnal,"  less  gross.  At  present  our  bodies  are  a  sad,  strange 
mixture  of  foulness  and  putrefaction  in  which  the  sweeter,  purer, 
etheric  flame  of  life  straggles  and  smoulders  —  the  clear  result 
of  our  imperfect  food  and  the  bacteria  which  we  ingest  with  it. 
All  this  may  be  beneficently  changed  by  accurate  nutrition,  and 
our  bodies  transfigured  to  realize  higher  ideals  of  protoplasmic 
purity  and  beauty.  With  perfected  nutrition  this  progressive  spir- 
itualization of  the  organism  will  surely  come;  it  can  not  be  other- 
wise. During  adolescence,  when  nutrition  of  the  cells  is  best,  we 
sometimes  catch  fleeting  glimpses  of  what  well-nigh  divine  beauty 
the  human  face  and  form  are  capable  of  attaining  for  a  brief  time : 
the  veriest  glimpses  as  yet  of  what  is  coming  in  the  future  and 
may  be  rendered  permanent.  It  is  one  of  the  prizes  for  labor 
along  this  line  of  research. 

Fourth,  on  the  psychic  and  moral  side,  equally  beneficent  results 
will  be  seen  to  follow  naturally.  Bad  living,  bad  nutrition,  disease, 
brief  lifetimes  and  the  certainty  of  death  are  the  great  immoral 
factors  in  human  life,  at  present. 


CARE  OF  THE  ORGANISM  DURING  SLEEP 

Care  and  control  of  the  organism  during  sleep  have  also  to  be 
made  matters  of  study. 

Sleep  is  ever  "  a  mild  form  of  death  "  —  the  temporary  death 
or  cessation  of  the  self-conscious  mind,  covering  a  period  of  one 
third  part  of  our  lives. 

The  proper  preparation  of  the  organism  for  sleep,  and  caring 
for  it  during  eight  hours  of  the  twenty-four,  is  therefore  a  very 
important  consideration.  Sleep  as  entered  upon  is  often  injurious, 
even  dangerous.  In  truth,  we  have  yet  to  learn  how  to  sleep  prop- 
erly. The  field  for  experimentation  here  is  a  wide  one,  embracing 
the  application  of  electrical  currents,  also  the  use  of  ozone  and 
added  oxygen  in  the  air  respired,  since  it  is  well  known  that  low- 


HOW    IT    WILL   BE   ACHIEVED  237 

ered  respiration  in  sleep  at  times  leads  to  various  degrees  of  car- 
bonic acid  poisoning  and  suffocation,  as  evinced  in  dangerous 
nightmares,  terrifying  dreams,  etc. 

The  experimentation  carried  on  along  this  line  of  research  in- 
cludes many  recently  suggested  adjuvants  and  safeguards.  It  is 
a  field  of  great  promise;  promise  that  the  eight  hours  of  uncon- 
sciousness may  very  possibly  be  made  a  period  of  depuration  and 
even  of  rejuvenation. 

People  sleep  so  badly  at  present,  so  dangerously  even,  that  this 
line  of  research  may,  without  the  least  exaggeration,  be  regarded 
as  an  urgently  necessary  one.  Certain  it  is  that  a  vast  alleviation 
of  the  lives  of  millions  may  be  brought  about  from  one  year's 
study  and  experiment,  with  this  end  in  view. 


THE    STUDY    OF    MULTICELLULAR    REPRODUCTION 

Another  needed  effort  of  investigation,  for  a  number  of  well- 
equipped  observers,  is  the  subject  of  multicellular  reproduction,  to 
ascertain  what  actually  goes  into  the  metazoic  ovum ;  whether 
these  germ  elements  of  the  heredity-chromatin  are  reduplicated,  as 
long  as  the  parent  organism  remains  plastic,  or  whether,  as  many 
believe,  the  cells  of  the  parent  organism  are  depleted  by  an  irre- 
placeable out-go  of  such  elements,  and  that  old  age  is  the  result 
of  the  drain  set  upon  the  organic  cells  by  the  cells  of  the  repro- 
ductive apparatus  of  the  body;  a  drain  which  goes  on  quite  the 
same  whether  the  germs  are  liberated  for  offspring,  or  not. 

Which  of  these  views  is  correct,  is  of  immense  importance  as 
affecting  future  plans  for  the  husbandry  and  renewal  of  the  cell 
life  of  the  body.  These  questions  deeply  concern  marriage  and 
the  larger  communal  life  of  the  nation  in  the  future. 

In  the  past,  for  reasons  necessitated  by  the  human  habitat  and 
environment,  nature  has  completed  the  cycle  of  life,  by  the  parent- 
and-child  method.  We  have  now,  in  producing  the  future  death- 
less individual,  to  learn  to  conserve  and  restore  the  germ-elements 
to  the  parent  organism;  —  as  if  we  returned  the  vast  crop  of  apple 
seeds  to  the  parent  apple  tree  instead  of  allowing  them  to  go 
broadcast  over  the  land;  as  if  we  learned  to  restore  the  millions 
of  milted  eggs  to  the  parent  salmon,  instead  of  seeing  them  go 


238  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

largely  to  waste  in  the  beds  of  the  rivers,  the  parent  fish  meantime 
dying  at  once  from  the  excess  of  the  fructifying  process  of  its 
cells. 

In  male  animals  and  man,  where  continence  is  practised  or 
enforced,  a  partial  return  of  the  germ-elements  is  accomplished 
by  absorption  into  the  circulation;  and  the  revivifying  eftects  of 
such  restoration  have  long  been  a  matter  of  observation.  We 
know  therefore  that  even  under  nature's  imperfect  process,  what 
is  equivalent  to  a  partial  rejuvenation  is  effected.  We  have 
to  perfect  this  restorative  process  and  substitute  economy  and 
thrift  for  waste  and  squander  of  life.  Psychic  factors  also 
enter  here.  The  theory  of  Weissmann  is  well  known,  as  also  the 
gemmule  theory  of  Darwin.  Both  now  bid  fair  to  be  found  cor- 
rect in  part. 

Another  question  of  great  and  timely  importance  will  be  to 
determine  as  far  as  possible  how  deeply  and  how  radically  the 
life  of  the  brain  and  nervous  system  controls  and  maintains  the 
life  of  the  other  tissues  of  the  organism. 

To  put  the  question  in  another  light:  if  it  were  possible  to 
remove  the  brain  and  nervous  system  from  the  organism  of  a  man 
sixty  years  old,  and  replace  it. with  that  from  a  youth  of  twenty, 
what  would  be  the  effect  on  the  life  of  the  older  organism?  Al- 
though purely  hypothetical,  such  a  case  can  be  supposed,  and  gives 
an  idea  of  the  scope  and  bearing  of  the  proposed  inquiry  on  the 
psychic  old-aging  of  the  brain. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PERIPHERAL  NERVOUS  SYSTEM 

The  problem  of  normally  prolonged  life  involves  not  only  nutri- 
tion and  protection  of  the  brain  cells,  but  the  protection  of  their 
immediate  outlying  adjuncts  from  the  wear  and  tear  of  terrestrial 
life,  meaning  that  delicate  peripheral  apparatus  which  stands  be- 
tween the  central  nervous  system  and  the  external  world,  and  puts 
us  in  touch  with  our  environment.  Truth  to  say,  it  is  an  adjunct 
often  neglected,  so  far  as  proper  recognition  goes  of  the  part  it 
plays  in  animal  life  and  the  necessity  of  guarding  it  from  injury. 
Owing  to  its  exposed  situation,  it  suffers  first  of  all  as  the  organ- 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  239 

ism  ages.  In  attributing-  the  self-conscious  life  solely  to  the  brain, 
too,  a  partial  error  has  been  made.  This  often  neglected  portion 
of  the  nervous  system  carries  in  it  a  measure  of  the  personality  and 
has  a  degree  of  autonomy.  It  outlies  the  brain  and  cord,  like  a  dis- 
tant state  of  the  nation,  and  is  connected  with  it  by  long  sheathed 
threads,  lines  and  channels  of  modified  nervous  substance,  which 
are  little  more  than  conductors  of  nervous  energy. 

We  are  referring,  of  course,  to  the  very  elaborate  and  interesting 
apparatus  by  means  of  which  the  central  nervous  system  termi- 
nates in  the  human  skin,  and  is  thereby  put  in  communication  with 
the  external  world ;  that  living  mechanism  which  disassociates  the 
ego  from  the  non-ego ;  the  chemico-mechanical  medium  wherein 
we  end,  subjectively,  and  establish  our  personal  relations  with  the 
objective  universe. 

This  portion  or  adjunct  of  the  nervous  system  also  includes  the 
highly-specialized,  terminal  cells  of  the  organs  of  sight,  hearing, 
taste,  and  smell,  as  well  as  the  nerve  plexuses  of  the  lungs,  heart, 
hver,  kidneys,  and  alimentary  tract,  within  the  thoracic  and  ab- 
dominal cavities  of  the  body.  But  we  are  now  alluding  more 
particularly  to  the  skin  and  the  nerve  terminal  apparatus  lodged  in 
it.  This  latter  consists  of  what  has  been  variously  termed  papillae, 
"  tactile  corpuscles,"  "  end  bulbs,"  **  corpuscles  of  Gandry,"  "  Pa- 
cinian corpuscles,"  "corpuscles  of  Merkel,"  ^t  al.,  where  sens* 
nerve  fibers  from  the  brain  terminate  and  receive  sensations  froia 
the  external  world.  Here,  too,  motor-nerve  fibers  actuate  the 
sweat  glands,  sebaceous  glands,  hair  follicles  and  muscular  fibers. 

Altogether  it  forms  an  apparatus  so  necessary  to  sense,  to  excre- 
tion and  the  general  depuration  of  the  blood,  that  cessation  of  its 
functions  is  soon  followed  by  death.  Yet  owing  to  its  exposed 
situation,  damage,  shrinkage  and  deterioration  begin  even  during 
adolescence,  and  as  time  passes  become  grave  factors  of  old-aging. 
Daily  accidents,  heat,  cold,  the  action  of  the  air,  water  and  mordant 
substances,  tend  constantly  to  impair  and  destroy  the  skin  as  an 
organ  of  Hfe. 

What  can  be  done  to  save  and  keep  it  good,  becomes,  therefore, 
a  proper  subject  of  study. 


240  IMMORTAL   LIFE 

DEATHLESS  LIFE  A  NECESSITY  OF  FUTURE 
EVOLUTION 

All  this,  even  a  hundred  well-equipped  students  might  accom- 
plish, possibly  in  a  few  years,  fortune  favoring,  if  they  could  be 
brought  together  and  their  enthusiasm  enlisted. 

But  if  mankind  cannot  be  induced  to  work  together  for  this 
end,  what  then?  If  longer  life  cannot  be  attained,  we  shall  go  on, 
generation  after  generation,  making  but  a  purblind  progress,  often 
disheartened,  often  pessimistic,  and  it  may  even  be,  pass  the  point 
of  race  development  where  great  achievements  are  possible  —  pass 
into  the  limbo  of  nature's  unprogressive  orders  of  life.  There 
is  danger  of  it.  At  present  the  Aryan  is  on  the  ascending  limb 
of  his  race-life;  but  beyond  there  is  ever  a  possible  descending 
limb,  to  the  dark  nadir  of  the  fossil. 

With  every  order  of  terrestrial  life  there  seems  to  be  a  hey-day 
when  all  things  are  possible  to  it,  even  godhood  and  immortality. 
The  westward-moving  Aryan  has  now  circum-traversed  the  globe; 
there  are  no  more  continents  to  which  he  may  migrate.  He  has 
come  around  fronting  that  lofty  Asian  plateau  from  which  he 
originally  set  forth.  Will  he  now  rise  to  a  higher  type  of  life,  or 
stagnate  for  an  epoch  and  hide  his  bones  in  the  rocks? 

The  real  lack  is  for  student-workers,  willing  to  consecrate  them- 
selves to  the  effort:  this  grand  achievement  for  which  the  Age 
waits. 

There  was  a  man  (sing  his  example,  O  Epic  Muse!)  whose 
name  was  Field.  He  had  made  a  fortune  in  business,  and  instead 
of  retiring,  to  rot  in  it,  he  then,  though  his  years  were  not  a  few, 
threw  his  whole  soul  into  a  grand  enterprise,  labored  long  to 
organize  it,  to  make  his  fellow  men  believe  in  it  and  work  with 
him.     He  won.     He  lived  to  see  that  enterprise  a  fait  accompli. 

Cyrus  W.  Field  sleeps  with  his  fathers  in  the  brain  of  the  race; 
but  the  first  Atlantic  Cable  is  at  his  credit  there;  and  his  far 
children  of  the  grander  America  to  come,  will  want  to  summon 
him  whenever  they  have  a  bold  project  in  hand  that  daunts  their 
courage.     They  will  want  to  hear  Field's  brave  voice  again. 

Horse-racing,  private  yachts,  champagne  and  the  somatic  pleas- 
ures —  how  soon  all  that  sort  of  thing  palls  is  a  matter  of  con- 


HOW    IT    WILL   BE    ACHIEVED  24 1 

stant  experience  with  the  retired  rich.  Why  relapse  to  that  dry 
rot  of  animaHsm?  It  is  an  ennobhng  motive  for  the  rest  of  their 
life,  now  needed.  Not  French  cookery,  not  Cuban  tobacco,  not 
race-horses,  not  selfish  ease,  but  that  good,  clear  conscience  toward 
humanity  which  transfigures  the  human  face. 

For  whether  we  know  it  or  not,  whether  we  care  or  not,  our 
personal  subconsciousness,  and  that  of  our  race,  hold  us  account- 
able for  the  money  (humanity's  money)  which  we  have  gotten 
hold  of.  That  subconscience  in  us  will  not  surcease,  nor  abdicate. 
No  man  will,  nor  possibly  can,  long  enjoy  life  who  lives  along 
purely  selfish  lines.  That  unappeased  Nemesis  who  presides  deep 
in  the  ancestral  brain  of  the  race,  soon  finds  him  out,  and  day  by 
day,  with  unseen  hand,  drops  loathly  satiety  in  the  cup  of  his 
pleasures. 

There  is  no  escaping  that  draught.  'Tis  to  be  drunk,  good 
friends,  and  that,  too,  from  a  physiological  law,  profound  in  the 
intima  of  your  being;  profound  in  the  storied  strata  of  that  com- 
mune brain-of-man  which  a  thousand  generations  of  your  ances- 
tors have  confided,  temporarily,  to  your  care  and  keeping,  not  for 
you  alone,  but  for  generations  yet  unborn.  You  hold  it  only  in 
trust.  It  is  confided  to  you  only  in  the  expectation  that  you  will 
guard  it  preciously  and  pass  it  on,  made  better  by  your  occupancy ; 
—  for  it  is  the  precious  heirloom  of  a  million  years  of  struggle,  of 
battle,  of  toil,  of  martyrdom.  Live  deliquent,  at  your  peril.  The 
Court-of-the-Dead  sits  there  over  your  own  brow,  sits  to  judge 
you,  and  has  its  own  code  of  exquisite  retributions. 

Also  its  beneficent  rewards;  but  always  and  ever  the  price  of 
these  is  labor  for  your  race. 

With  brows  knit  and  rapt,  sad  eyes,  Life-on-Earth  presses  for- 
ward on  her  marvelous  journey  upward,  to  win  Heaven  and  Im- 
mortality for  her  far-future  children.  It  is  the  one  great,  august 
spectacle  of  this  still  mysterious  Universe  —  that  Intent  sublime 
of  Life-on-Earth. 

But  the  way  of  that  upward  journey  is  long  and  hard  and  ardu- 
ous. Naught  less  than  devotion  and  our  best  efforts  are  accepted, 
or  tolerated.  No  malfeasance  is  permitted  us.  Delinquents  are 
weeded  out,  without  thought  of  them  personally,  their  names 
blotted  from  the  Book. 


242  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

THE   OBSTACLES   TO   CO-OPERATION    NOT 
OVERLOOKED 

The  difficulties  are  not  underrated,  nor  overlooked.  Men  have 
not  yet  sufficient  knowledge,  it  is  urged,  to  comprehend  the  tre- 
mendous advantages  of  such  close  co-operation;  nor  do  they  as 
yet  really  know  how  to  co-operate.  Personal  selfishness  outweighs 
the  larger  view.  The  inherent  immorality  of  a  short  life,  too, 
prompts  us  to  snatch  at  personal  pleasure  and  let  the  next  genera- 
tion take  care  of  itself.  It  is  all  a  part  of  this  immorality  of 
certain  death,  difficult  to  be  ameliorated  as  long  as  human  life  is 
so  perilously  insecure  and  brief.  With  death  but  a  few  years 
ahead  at  best,  human  beings  work  for  those  few  years  and  con- 
tinue indifferent  to  larger  interests. 

All  of  which  is  true  in  a  way.  And  yet  there  is  always  a  meas- 
ure of  altruism  in  the  human  heart,  a  balance  of  philanthropic 
good-will  and  a  strain  of  generous  heroism,  prompting  to  deeds  of 
self-sacrifice  for  the  common  weal. 

A\'e  would  all  of  us,  as  a  rule,  be  willing  to  do  more  than  we 
do  for  the  common  good,  and  co-operate  in  mutual  undertakings 
more  than  we  do,  but  for  the  impracticability  of  such  efforts,  the 
difficulty  of  initiating  united  action,  the  inertia  of  existent  social, 
political  and  economic  methods.  It  is  this  inertia  of  olden  forms, 
customs,  race  antipathies,  creeds  and  national  prejudices  which  so 
bafiles  making  united  effort. 

All  of  which  brings  us  back  to  the  practical  question  of  what 
can  best  be  done,  under  the  circumstances,  to  unite  the  world's 
resources,  combine  human  intelligence  and  render  both  effective 
for  this  later,  grander  enterprise.  What  is  the  first  practical  step 
to  this  end  ? 

GENS  SCIEXTLE  ET  VITJE 

At  first  it  appeared  possible  to  the  present  writer  that  something 
could  be  done  on  a  world-wide  scale,  and  that  the  best  method  of 
beginning  would  be  a  world-league  of  educated  people  in  every 
civilized  coimtry,  irrespective  of  race  or  nation;  for  science  is  a 
common  nation,  a  common  country.     And  since  there  are  many 


HOW    IT    WILL    BE    ACHIEVED  243 

Spoken  languages  and  the  Latin  is  the  source  of  scientific  nomen- 
clature, it  seemed  proper  to  call  such  a  league  Gens  Scienticr  ct 
Vitcc. 

It  seemed  possible  that  scientific  men  and  educated  people,  the 
world  over,  might  thus  organize  to  promote  research  on  a  grand 
scale,  with  greatly  prolonged  life  in  view.  It  was  at  once  recog- 
nized that  membership  must  not  be  construed  as  inimical  to  ex- 
istent citizenship  and  allegiance  to  one's  own  country,  but  only  a^ 
pledging  members,  individually,  to  use  their  best  efforts  to  promote 
such  researches,  and  in  case  of  impending  war,  to  avert  it,  if 
possible.  Also,  in  the  case  of  nationally-selfish  legislation,  to  de- 
feat it  in  favor  of  a  policy  more  internationally  just. 

It  appeared  possible  that  such  a  world-league,  having  its  head- 
quarters in  the  United  States  and  an  extensive  membership  in 
every  country  of  the  globe,  might  come  to  exercise  a  controlling 
influence  in  mundane  affairs. 

Peace  societies  we  already  have,  but  the  Gens  Scientice  et  Vitcp 
would  have  a  definite  aim,  namely,  the  union  of  mankind  for  the 
application  of  science  and  the  world's  resources  to  attain  freedom 
from  death. 

In  nearly  all  civilized  countries  there  are  now  scientific  asso- 
ciations, or  what  corresponds  to  them,  which  might,  it  was  be- 
lieved, on  proper  representation,  be  united  for  promoting  this 
effort.  These  societies  and  associations  would  serve  as  the  national 
units  of  the  proposed  international  Gens.  Science,  which  is  the 
main-spring  of  all  present  progress,  is  thus  far  deficient  in  methods 
of  working  on  a  world-wide  scale,  or  even  of  acquainting,  save 
by  hearsay  of  the  press,  the  scientific  men  of  one  country  with  those 
of  another.  In  many  cases,  il  is  not  until  published  papers  appear, 
that  scientists  in  remote  lands  gain  an  inkling  of  what  contempo- 
rary investigators  are  doing.  Nothing  like  economic  division  of 
labor  in  scientific  research,  or  in  the  way  of  mutual  aid,  has  yel 
been  attempted. 

Perhaps  nothing  less  than  an  engrossing  common  motive,  like 
that  of  the  achievement  of  greatly  prolonged  life,  will  suffice  to 
unite  and  bind  together  the  scattered  scientists  of  different  coun- 
tries. That  motive,  at  least,  will  prove  the  greatest  incentive  to 
united  action.  The  sublimity  of  the  object  and  the  personal  stake 
of  each  and  all  in  the  success  of  the  endeavor  would  quite  over- 


244  IMMORTAL    LIFE 

shadow  the  baser  sentiment  of  jealousy  between  investigators. 
The  biological  science  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be,  indeed, 
working  for  life's  sake.  This  interest  will  become  universal  and 
intense.  Each  fresh  discovery,  each  new  application  of  remedial 
skill,  will  be  flashed  from  continent  to  continent  and  be  hailed  with 
an  ever-growing  enthusiasm. 

When  once  the  idea  has  gone  world-wide  that  science  has  good 
hopes  of  removing  the  causes  of  death,  there  will  be  ex- 
hibited an  ardent  desire  to  live,  such  as  the  world  has  never  known. 
We  grow  weary  of  living  and  resign  ourselves  to  death  only  be- 
cause of  the  pain  and  hopelessness  of  the  struggle  to  live  longer  — 
a  struggle  which  will  cease  in  vital  calm  and  rest  when  research 
teaches  us  how  nutrition  takes  place  and  what  chemical  substances 
are  the  proper  food  of  the  cell-of-life,  without  the  present  hard, 
internal  labor  of  preparation. 

All  this  was  hoped  for  when  the  Gens  Scientice  was  first  pro- 
posed ten  years  ago.  The  laboratory  here  was  enlarged  to  afford 
facilities  for  fifty  associates,  with  housing  accommodations  and 
necessary  adjuncts. 

The  response  to  the  invitation  was  adequate,  but  involved  many 
preliminaries  and  delays.  Then  came  war  with  its  distractions, 
followed  by  the  untimely  death  of  the  two  associates  on  whom  the 
enterprise  largely  relied.  Other  drawbacks  have  occurred.  The 
lives  of  most  men,  even  ardent  students  of  the  sciences,  are  too 
circumscribed,  too  much  bound  to  the  wheel  of  personal  necessities, 
to  be  able  to  join,  effectively,  in  such  an  endeavor.  Questions  -of 
salary,  travel,  and  domestic  ties  stand  in  the  way  of  active  partici- 
pation. Many,  the  most  in  fact,  are  too  busy  getting  a  living,  too 
much  enslaved  to  family  life,  procreation  and  its  attendant  duties, 
to  co-operate  in  a  larger  effort.  They  would  like  to  do  so,  but 
their  menage  engrosses  them  and  holds  them  back. 

It  is  at  this  stage  of  abeyance  to  temporary  obstacles  that  the 
quest  for  deathless  life  stands  at  present  writing. 


THE  END. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  150  653    2 


m^M.l^.y.'^^  LIBRARIES 


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